(Day 11) Somber Reminders

Sayonara Kyoto! At least until tomorrow when we come back. Today we continue our journey across the fair country of Japan to the western city of Hiroshima. The bullet train ride isn’t incredibly long, but it is over an hour so this was excuse enough for me too buy an incredibly large meal to snack on for brunch. With our sacks full again, we boarded the Hikari Superexpress once more.




Oishii sou! Here we have some small apple jam sandwich cookies, Friend Bakery cookies, and the most appetizing of all, zaru (cold) soba.


”Rural” countryside.


Check out that bridge in the background!


Thank you!

The station in Hiroshima was surprisingly sparsely populated; certainly a change for our eyes. The heat outside was intense so I was thankful we didn’t have to walk too far with our giant sacks. It was too early to check into our swanky digs (for this one night only!) but we dropped our bags off anyways. The Hotel Granvia is owned by Japan Rail and thus was connected to the station – easy peasy.



The super-sweet ladies at check-in were extremely accommodating and told us to come back later and everything would be ready. Since Hiroshima train system, like Kyoto, is not as all-encompassing as Tokyo, I had the bright idea to walk to our destinations since it didn’t look so far on the map, so off we trudged. Hiroshima is a much calmer city than any other I had been in and yet still quite busy. We took in the sights, which included this fellow in his shanty on the river.







Hiroshima’s main public transit system is street-cars, which have been in operation since before the atomic bombing in 1945. Three original cars are still in use. You can see one of the street cars in the below picture.



Their stops, strangely enough, are in the middle of street – isn’t this a pedestrian hazard? Actually, it doesn’t matter since pedestrian hazards are too many to count in Japan. We trudged in the blazing heat on and on until we finally reached what appeared to be our destination – the A-Bomb Dome.



I took many pictures of this significant and powerful place, so please bear with me and enjoy them. I attempted another panoramic shot – I will get these right eventually. Please clicky-click for a larger view.





The Peace Memorial Park was stuffed full of people on this scorchingly hot day…seriously, I wasn’t hesitating to complain about the heat at any opportunity. That fan was working hard. Here is a the Peace Flame…burn strong!




Postcard-esque, ne? The Peace Arch framing the Peace Flame and the A-Bomb Dome.

Next up was escaping indoors to the Peace (everything here is peaceful, hey?) Museum. We battled the hoards (and I do mean hoards) of schoolchildren to catch glimpses of the artifacts, which contained several interesting pieces of melted skin, warped toenails, and this watch – stopped at the moment the bomb went off – 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945.




Hiroshima, two days after the bombing.


A-Bomb Dome, two days after the bombing.

Do you remember the story about the girl who survived the bombing and made over 10,000 paper cranes, believing they would make her well (she was, unfortunately, wrong)? Her name was Sadako Sasaki, and these are her tiny paper cranes.



We had a courageous youngster from one of the schools trying to high-five us on the way out of the museum with a “Good Afternoon! How are you?!” Ha ha. I just smiled and said “Good.” Kids these days. After we were atomic-bombed out, we wandered back to whence we came, which lead to inevitably more A-Bomb Dome pictures. Whoo hoo!


Yours truly, acting coy.

And because you haven’t seen it yet from this angle:


Okay, I’m done now.

Next up was our turn to ride the impossibly slow streetcars. I had no interest in walking back to the hotel considering how much I was already complaining about the heat, so we were determined to figure it out and we did.



We spent the rest of the afternoon shopping a bit at the station’s grocery store (where a boy actually looked in my direction! Japan SUCCESS!) and relaxing in our plush hotel room up on the 14th floor. Yeah, that’s right. It even had a trouser press.



Ahh Mother, remember relaxing, chatting and staring out the window? I think I was eating too. Probably.



After doing some late afternoon shopping at the department store across the street, Fukuya, I desired some real, authentic Hiroshima food – the only clear choice was obviously okonomiyaki. Yippee! I lurve onokomiyaki, and I’ve never had it Hiroshima-style (with soba noodles).



We ordered two cakes, one Osaka-style (as above), and one Hiroshima style.



The evening after dinner consisted of more relaxing and I finally wrote out the postcards I bought in Tokyo. The concierge sold stamps, so I did a late night run to the post box….and to the convenience store. I’m so weak.





Tomorrow we visit the sacred island of Miyajima, yet further west of Hiroshima. Here’s to hoping I don’t get nuzzled by a stray deer (but I will. Boo.)