Technically this post is going to chronicle Hiroshima day .5 and 1, because Friday was all-in-all a travel day (so be prepared for a long post, sorry). After grabbing lunch at the station, Nick and I caught a Thunderbird (which sounds fast even though it's really not) from Kanazawa to Shin-Osaka (time: about 3 hours, which is longer than the time it takes to go from Kanazawa to Tokyo, to put that in perspective). In Shin-Osaka we switched to a bullet train (thank goodness) which took us the rest of the way to Hiroshima, and we arrived at around 6. Nick and I walked from the station towards the peace park, where our hotel was located delightfully close to.
First impression of Hiroshima was this giant beer gate, though.
For dinner we got okonomiyaki, which is famous in Hiroshima.
This is a giant building filled with only okonomiyaki stores. Four or five floors of them.
Okonomiyaki in process. Its a thin layer of batter, bean sprouts, cabbage, meat, egg noodles, tempura batter, and a fried egg on top (with okonomiyaki sauce). It's like an entire food pyramid squashed into a grilled...thing. I definitely didn't leave hungry.
The next day dawned cloudy and drizzly, but undaunted Nick and I set out for the Peace Park.
There's definitely a solemn feeling that hits you when you enter the park. You can look from one end, which has the peace museum, all the way across the river where the A-bomb dome stands. And the children's memorial (which was built after the famous Sadako Sasaki, who died from leukemia after folding over a thousand paper cranes wishing for health) was absolutely stunning, filled with thousands upon thousands of paper cranes with wishes for peace and happiness.
Nick and I eventually crossed the river to take a closer look at the A-bomb dome and ground zero.
In contrast to the rest of the park, ground zero (which is about 600m away from the dome) is next to a current, modern building and is denoted only with this modest plaque.
The most interesting encounter was with this man, who had a free origami-crane folding station set up:
He was born in 1945, and the bomb went off while he was still unborn. So we heard a bit about his mother's experiences with the black rain, and a lot about the immediate medical problems of bomb survivors. Everyone who could prove that they were exposed to the radiation-infused black rain gets this pink booklet that gives them extreme discounts (if not outright free) treatment at hospitals because the medical complications are astounding.
After this, Nick and I went to the peace museum. I have no pictures of that for you, because I think to take pictures of the exhibits inside would diminish them. I'll just say that after making our way through, we just sat in a stupor for a while. It was immensely frightening, sobering, and sorrowful. I urge anyone who goes to Hiroshima to visit this museum, it will definitely give you food for thought on the consequences of war.
It was still raining, so after this we wandered around the area trying to find (sort-of) another indoor activity, which turned out to be a random fine-arts museum, which had an eclectic collection of impressionist and cubist art.
We also stopped to see the outside of the reconstructed Hiroshima castle:
The culinary highlight (besides the fabulous okonomiyaki) was definitely dinner. We went to a tempura restaurant and had a FABULOUS tempura dinner (think three rounds of perfectly fried, crisp tempura vegetables and fish). I only remembered to take a picture of the first course because after that I just ate too quickly:
And the relief on the faces of severs everywhere when they realize we speak Japanese is immense.
And that concludes day one (walking total: 8 miles). I'll post about the other highlight, Miyajima, tomorrow!
First impression of Hiroshima was this giant beer gate, though.
For dinner we got okonomiyaki, which is famous in Hiroshima.
This is a giant building filled with only okonomiyaki stores. Four or five floors of them.
Okonomiyaki in process. Its a thin layer of batter, bean sprouts, cabbage, meat, egg noodles, tempura batter, and a fried egg on top (with okonomiyaki sauce). It's like an entire food pyramid squashed into a grilled...thing. I definitely didn't leave hungry.
The next day dawned cloudy and drizzly, but undaunted Nick and I set out for the Peace Park.
There's definitely a solemn feeling that hits you when you enter the park. You can look from one end, which has the peace museum, all the way across the river where the A-bomb dome stands. And the children's memorial (which was built after the famous Sadako Sasaki, who died from leukemia after folding over a thousand paper cranes wishing for health) was absolutely stunning, filled with thousands upon thousands of paper cranes with wishes for peace and happiness.
Nick and I eventually crossed the river to take a closer look at the A-bomb dome and ground zero.
In contrast to the rest of the park, ground zero (which is about 600m away from the dome) is next to a current, modern building and is denoted only with this modest plaque.
The most interesting encounter was with this man, who had a free origami-crane folding station set up:
He was born in 1945, and the bomb went off while he was still unborn. So we heard a bit about his mother's experiences with the black rain, and a lot about the immediate medical problems of bomb survivors. Everyone who could prove that they were exposed to the radiation-infused black rain gets this pink booklet that gives them extreme discounts (if not outright free) treatment at hospitals because the medical complications are astounding.
After this, Nick and I went to the peace museum. I have no pictures of that for you, because I think to take pictures of the exhibits inside would diminish them. I'll just say that after making our way through, we just sat in a stupor for a while. It was immensely frightening, sobering, and sorrowful. I urge anyone who goes to Hiroshima to visit this museum, it will definitely give you food for thought on the consequences of war.
It was still raining, so after this we wandered around the area trying to find (sort-of) another indoor activity, which turned out to be a random fine-arts museum, which had an eclectic collection of impressionist and cubist art.
We also stopped to see the outside of the reconstructed Hiroshima castle:
The culinary highlight (besides the fabulous okonomiyaki) was definitely dinner. We went to a tempura restaurant and had a FABULOUS tempura dinner (think three rounds of perfectly fried, crisp tempura vegetables and fish). I only remembered to take a picture of the first course because after that I just ate too quickly:
And the relief on the faces of severs everywhere when they realize we speak Japanese is immense.
And that concludes day one (walking total: 8 miles). I'll post about the other highlight, Miyajima, tomorrow!
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