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Meditation
Unique Statue
This is the closest i can get to a Canadian Xmas
Kobe Fashion MuseumAWAJI ISLAND, THE ONION ISLAND
The Awaji Island is located between Honshu Island and Kyushu Island and connects both with the bridges Awaji in the north and Bes in the south. The Bes bridge allows to see a famous natural scenery, the water circles between the streams of the west flow and east flow, and the sensation is beautiful...and dangerous, because the boats cannot approach if they are small. The world's longest suspension bridge opened to traffic on April 5, 1998. The 3,911-meter (12,831-feet) Akashi Kaikyo Bridge is 580 meters (1,900 feet) longer than the Humber Bridge in England, the previous record holder.
The bridge across Akashi Strait connects Tarumi Ward in the city of Kobe with Awaji Island, both part of Hyogo Prefecture. Construction began way back in 1988, and it cost nearly 500 billion yen to complete.
Although both Kobe and Awaji were severely damaged in the January 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake, the new bridge will be able to withstand even bigger quakes--up to magnitude 8.5 on the Richter scale. It's also built to resist winds as strong as 288 kilometers (179 miles) per hour.
The bridge is part of an expressway link connecting Honshu, Japan's main island, with Shikoku by way of Awaji Island.
A ceremony attended by hundreds of school children was held in mid-March to mark the completion of the bridge. Initially, school kids from both sides of the bridge were supposed to walk across and meet halfway, but this had to be cancelled because of strong winds.
Around 300 students from Higashi Maiko Elementary School in Kobe did get a chance to walk on the bridge for about 500 meters (1,640 feet), though, and kids representing schools in the town of Awaji traveled aboard a bus to meet them. The students shook hands and exchanged gifts.
Tomonori Tamura, a sixth-grader at the Ishiya Elementary School in Awaji, said, "Crossing the bridge was a bit scary because it felt like walking along the edge of a cliff. But I had a great view of the sea."
