What immediately catches your eye in Hiroshima are the old trams driving through the streets there. These are Japanese, but also original European trams, run by the light rail company Hiroden. People even call the Hiroshima tram network a rolling tram museum (動く電車の博物館).

In 1981, two decommissioned trams made it all the way from Dortmund to Japan. They ran in regular service for several years. One of the cars was then scrapped and used for spare parts. The other car got converted into a special party train. Nowadays, it’s out of service too. For a while, you could admire it acting as a café in front of the Hiroden company headquarters. Meanwhile, it’s on display in a nice dry spot at The Outlets Hiroshima.

By the way, all the trains are air-conditioned; even the really old models had air conditioning retrofitted in the 1980s. A technical miracle, or so it seems, since transport companies over here can’t even manage that on significantly newer carriages.