| Mar 27 SAT. |
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Late spring is a happy time for those students who have passed the university entrance examinations. Hiroshima University holds its entrance examinations in two phases and will admit 3,000 students in all. In this period of economic uncertainty, there are some students who wish to live at home. On the day the results were announced at Hiroshima University, one student from Iida, Hachihonmatsu, explained that he wanted to live at home and attend a national university. Both he and his parents were delighted that he could enter the Faculty of Engineering at Hiroshima University.
For those students who do not commute from home (80% according to the Office of Student Affairs at Hiroshima University), Higashi-Hiroshima City offers a wide range of choice in student accommodation, with respect to location and price. Landlords are competing to offer attractive prices to students and local stores are offering bargains in electrical appliances and furniture. On average a student needs to spend about \500,000 in setting up accommodation, including rent, appliances and furniture. With some 2,500 new first-year students about to move into the vicinity of Hiroshima University, this comes to \125 million in economic benefits for the area, over a relatively short period of time.
Up till fairly recently, beer drinkers in Japan were limited to a wide range of choice but only of beer produced by the four major companies in Japan. Now there is a wide range of local beers to choose from, but the ardour for drinking these local beers has cooled in line with the economic problems facing Japan.
In the five prefectures which make up the Chugoku region, there are 16 makers of local beers, with names like Chonmage Beer (brewed in Hagi City) Kurale ('Kure'+'Ale', brewed in Kure City) and Reed'n Beer (brewed in Fukuyama City). There is now a beer restaurant in Naka-ku, Hiroshima City, appropriately named Heiwa Kobo (or 'Peace Gallery'), which serves local brews. So it is now possible in Hiroshima to do as the British and go down to the 'local' (pub) to drink the 'local' (brew).
A memorial hall for atomic-bomb victims is to be constructed on the east side of the Peace Memorial Park, just south of the existing Rest House. A major focus of the memorial hall will be a clock, with the hands set at 8.15, the precise moment when the bomb exploded. A clock, which stopped at this time, is one of the prized exhibits of the Peace Museum.
銀たなべ Gin (or 'shirogane'=silver) Tanabe is the name of a small (one-room) restaurant in Ebisu-cho, right in the heart of Hiroshima's entertainment district. The food is Japanese home-style and the most popular menu is omakase-ryori (a carefully thought out and well-balanced set menu, which costs \3,000 and changes twice a month). This menu also matches the seasons. However, single dishes are also available and there are 24 such items on the menu to choose from. Tel. (082) 240-3988. |
「合格した！！」
春の終わりは大学入学試験を突破した学生には幸せな時期だ。広島大は前、後期の入学試験を行い、約3,000人が合格する見込みだ。不況の中、実家から通いたいと思う学生もいる。広島大の合格発表の日、八本松飯田のある学生は、実家から通える国立大学へ入学したかったと話していた。この学生も両親も広島大工学部への入学を喜んでいた。
実家から通学しない学生（同大学生課によれば、80％にのぼる）のために、東広島市には場所や価格に選択の幅がある、さまざまな学生アパートがある。家主は価格で学生を引き付けようと競い、地元の店は家電製品や家具の大売り出しをしている。
学生は、一人暮らしを始めるために家賃や家具などを含め、平均で50万円必要である。広島大の近郊には約2,500人の新入生が越してくるため、この地域に1億2,500万円の経済利益がこの短い期間に入ることになる。
「地元の地ビール」
つい最近まで、日本のビール愛好家は限られた4つの大企業のビールの中からしか選ぶことができなかった。今ではたくさんの地ビールの中から選ぶことができるが、こういった地ビールを飲む情熱は、日本が経済不況にある中でしだいに冷めている。
中国地方の5つの県には、ちょんまげビール（萩市）、クレール（呉市）、リーデンビール（福山市）などの16の地ビール醸造所がある。広島市中区には、その名も平和工房という名のビアレストランがあり、地ビールを出している。そのため今では、広島でイギリスのように居酒屋へ行き、地酒を飲むことができる。
「午前8時15分」
原爆死没者追悼祈念館が平和記念公園の東側、ちょうど現在のレストハウスの南側に建設される。この祈念館のもっとも注目されるものは、ちょうど原爆が投下された時間の8時15分に針を合わした時計であろう。この時間で止まっているこの時計は、祈念館の貴重な展示品の一つだ。