In the first part of our journey through Japan we visited many extraordinary places, and this episode is no exception.

Osaka is the third largest city in Japan, was once the country's most important trading centre. Toyotomi Hideyoshi had a large castle built around it which emerged the first great blossoming of a self-confident bourgeois culture. What can be seen and visited today is a faithful replica of the original fortress.

The port city of Kobe, located west of Osaka, is still in the world's memory when the catastrophe of the 1990’s can no longer be recognized in the Chinese quarter. On January 17th, 1995 whole districts and the harbour area were completely destroyed by the devastating quake of which there were six thousand victims. Following the disaster, both Meriken Park and the Harbour were built in front of an almost utopian skyline.

From Osaka, the Koya Express leads to the monastery mountain of Koya San, one of the most important and oldest places of pilgrimage in the country and travels up the fascinating mystical mountain. Daimon, the "Great Gate", served as the entrance to Mount Koya, defended by the "Guardian Deities". In 816 A.D., Kobo Daishi, founder of the Shingon School, had the first monastery built, which was subsequently followed by 124 temple buildings. The nine hundred metre high monastery mountain is one of the country’s most important and oldest pilgrimage sites.

On August 6, 1945, at 8:15 in the morning, the first American nuclear bomb in history was dropped over Hiroshima. It exploded five hundred and eighty metres above the so-called Atom Bomb Dome, an apocalyptic moment that brought indescribable suffering. The skeleton of the former Chamber of Commerce was preserved as a peace memorial and is now the central point of the much-visited Peace Park.