Hiroshima

I have a new favorite city in Japan, Hiroshima. The day after Christmas, Rose and I set out on our vacation. We knew we wanted to go to Hiroshima, but the rest of the trip was up in the air. So we took a regular train to Osaka, and from there the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima. It was a little expensive, but we both wanted to try it. I was hoping to experience some G-forces, and braced myself for “take off,” but was a little disappointed to find that it was just like a regular train ride, definitely faster and smoother, but not that different. I am glad to have tried it. We arrived in Hiroshima in about 3 hours. It was pouring rain on our way to the hostel, but we found it quickly. It turns out that this hostel, J-Hoppers, was great. The owners were extremely nice and accommodating, and the other people staying at the hostel were friendly. We hung out with a couple girls, Akemi and Jamie, we met there almost the whole time. They are also teaching English, but live near Tokyo. The rooms at the hostel were Japanese style, with tatami mats and futons. They were so comfortable! And the rate was only 2,000 yen (less than $20) per day. The first full day in Hiroshima we went to an island called Miyajima. We took a ferry there. The island is famous for it’s “floating” torii. During high tide, the torii is surrounded by water. There were more deer walking around and nibbling on tourists. The island is quite beautiful with nature trails and shrines to explore. We then took a cable car up to the top of a mountain. The view was spectacular. There are many islands out there. When we got to the top of the mountain, there were many signs about monkeys that were at the top of the mountain too. The signs were all very funny, but no monkeys were to be found. It was quite a long hike to the actual temple and viewpoint. It was a little hard, but worth it. Back at the bottom of the mountain, we tried some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki and did some shopping.
The next day, we visited the peace museum. It was quite cold that day, so I was glad to be inside. The museum was very moving and informative. There are two main parts, one dedicated to the facts about the war, the bomb, and the city, and the other section was about the effects of the bombing on humans and the environment. Everything was in English, but I rented the headphone set to get the extra info. It was helpful to get little summaries of each area. So far I have seen the Pearl Harbor Memorial, the museum in Los Alamos about the bomb, and now the Hiroshima Peace Museum. I am always interested in more information about the war. It is difficult to understand how it could happen.
As we left the peace museum, it began to snow. We didn’t expect it, and it was so beautiful just drifting down. We walked around the peace park, saw the eternal flame, and children’s memorial. Unfortunately, we forgot to look at the place where all the names are. I know my grandmother’s family is from Hiroshima, so family must have perished there, but I do not know much about them. I want to find out more.
It snowed all night, and it was so fun to play in. The snow didn’t stick on the ground, so we couldn’t build a snowman or anything, but we had lots of fun running around in it. All the people not from California just laughed at us.
We spent the rest of the time shopping and wandering around. It is a great city, and I definitely want to go back.
And then we were off to Fukuoka on the island south of Honshu, called Kyushu. We stayed in Fukuoka for one night, had tonkotsu ramen, and left bright and early the next morning for Korea.