I will be honest: when I found out about the Orizuru Tower in Hiroshima, a recently built sightseeing spot next to the (in)famous Peace Park, I was not too impressed with the idea of it.

The word orizuru means a paper crane in Japanese and as origami is an important part of the Japanese culture so is a crane: it is considered a symbol of peace.

When speaking with my local friends I found that they spoke of the Orizuru Tower with a sense of resentment in their voices. They thought it crazy that next to the A-Bomb Dome there was now a towering building that seemed to boast only one attraction: folding a paper crane and throwing it into a glass wall – and paying a hefty fee for this dubious pleasure.

As my friends deemed the Orizuru Tower a tourist trap and nothing more it so happened that for…