Hiroshima

This past weekend, Dan and I took a trip to Hiroshima. It was an amazing city. We enjoyed our first shinkansen ride(bullet train) and stayed in a traditional Japanese Inn. The Inn was a lot like a hostel, but with tetami floors in the rooms that you couldn’t wear your shoes on. It was a short walk from our Inn to the Peace park, which was nice and convenient.

The first night, we found our hotel and walked to the main shopping and dining area. There we ate some Japanese-Italian(the Japanese seem to really like Italian restaurants). Then we headed out for a drink at a fancy sports bar. The next day was devoted mainly to the sights. We started with the Peace Memorial Museum. It was super informative and fair. I thought it really showed both sides and didn’t blame as much as ask the question- “how can this be avoided in the future?”. There were lots of before and after pictures, which gave a good idea of exactly what happened. I was glad that Dan made me read the book Hiroshima this past summer, because a lot of things made more sense with that background. From there, we explored the Peace Park, the monuments, and the A-Bomb Dome. The Dome is crazy to see in person.

We went and had lunch at a curry place and then went to the Hiroshima Contemporary Art Museum. We chose that one over a couple others because it had some art inspired by the bombing. After the museum we were ready to be done with the sights and relax. We went for a drink and met a couple US marines and a very friendly bartender who studied in England for a while. Later we ate at an Izakaya- it’s kind of like a bar, but they serve lots of different Japanese food in small portions(almost like tapas).

The next day we found a place that served an egg and toast breakfast(not common over here). We were excited about that and then headed over to the Hiroshima castle (a rebuilt one, since we destroyed the first one). After that we walked over to the Shukkei-en garden, which means shrunken garden(It too was destroyed and rebuilt). It was beautiful and right after we walked in an old man approached us and asked if he could give us a tour. He walked us around and explained what things were and why they were there. He was very friendly and often referred to his notes so he didn’t miss telling us anything. It was interesting because it's a type of garden that was made with a formula. All of the gardens that are this type have certain types of bridges, bamboo, green tea, four small rice plots,a central pond, a waterfall, a mimi-shore, and islands. They day we were there, there happened to be a musical performance in the large tea house, so as we walked around, we heard some faint traditional music in the background. Very pleasant.

Sunday evening we headed home and decided we want to go back to Hiroshima.

Here we are on our first Shinkansen train ride. We loved it.

Here is the Peace Park Memorial with the cenotaph that contains a list of more than 200,000 A-bomb victims. It is out in front of the Peace Memorial Museum. This woman was cleaning up.

This is the flame that is to remain burning until there are no more nuclear weapons on earth. You can see it through the memorial arch.

The A-bomb Dome

A before and after picture of the A-bomb Dome.

An interesting view of the dome.

The cool stairway at the Hiroshima contemporary art museum. All the things on the stairs are fountains.

Hiroshima-jo castle

Huge koi in the moat at the castle.

Here we are in the Shukkei-en Garden.

This is the nice gentleman who guided us around for an hour.

Here I am relaxing after the tour.