Hiroshima

Our next outing from Kyoto would be to Hiroshima. It's about a 2 hour train ride from Kyoto, so we got to experience the bullet train once again. It's nice to hop on the bullet train early in the morning, take a nap, and wake up at the next place to visit.

We arrived in Hiroshima station, and looked for a place to eat. I was amazed to see Ann steer towards a McDonald's. She won't go near the place at home, and I haven't been to one for a long time as well. I think we were just missing the familiar taste of greasy, unhealthy, fast food from home. We guiltily ate our lunch quickly, and headed for the Peace Park where the hypo-center of the A-Bomb was centered.


Ann's choice for lunch
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They have a cable car system that reminded me of New Orleans. We performed our standard "look confused and someone will feel sorry for you and give you directions" thing, and someone did just that. We just had to take the number 2 train until we heard them say "Peace Park" in English. A gentleman that looked to be a tourist helped us out, it turns out he used to live in Hiroshima for many years, and now is coming back for a vacation.

Throughout our visit to Hiroshima, I felt a strange mix of guilt for what our country did to these innocent people, and a feeling of relief that they don't hate all Americans because of it. Everyone was so friendly and helpful, just like anywhere else in Japan.

We arrived at the peace park on a hot morning, and decided to make our way into the museum. The museum was packed full of kids on field trips, which is par for the course everywhere we went. Many times, they would walk by and say "Hello" and be amazed when we said hello back (or even more amazed when we said Ohayo or Konnichi-wa (good morning/good day)).


School kids at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum
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The exhibit was very interesting, and emotional as they showed the effects of the radiation, at the time a mystery as to why people were getting sick. They had the steps where a shadow of a person was projected from the intense heat which vaporized the person sitting in the spot. This is something I remembered seeing a picture of when I was a kid, and to see it in reality was a shock.

After the Museum, we toured the grounds of the peace park. They have a memorial which has a flame that burns until the last nuclear weapon has been destroyed on Earth. At this point, the flame will be extinguished.


Cenotaph at Peace Memorial Park
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Flame that will be extinguished after all nuclear weapons are destroyed.
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At the cenotaph, there was a line of elderly people in wheel chairs that were brought up to the memorial one by one. They looked as if they could be around the age of WWII vets or survivors.

We noticed when walking around the grounds that there were about 15 people all working on one hedge. It seems that they have many people for one job, as Mike and Alicia pointed out back in Tokyo. The other thing that was interesting, was there were elderly people that looked in better shape than us working along with the young people in the blistering heat of midday trimming and taking care of the grounds.

We moved on to the Children's Memorial which is dedicated to Sadako, a young girl who was diagnosed with Leukemia 10 years after the blast. She started folding origami cranes, believing that if she created 1000 cranes, she would recover from her illness. She wasn't able to finish the cranes, but since her death thousands of school kids from throughout the world started sending paper cranes to Hiroshima. They've been collected and strung into an impressive display.


Collection of cranes from school kids
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Children's Memorial crane collection
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Children's memorial monument
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We were walking away from the children's memorial, when a woman approached us and said he wanted to say a Buddhist prayer for us. She told us to close our eyes, so we did while she silently prayed for us. It was quite a long time she prayed, and I was guiltily trying to feel my back pocket for any sign of her trying to take my wallet. We realized after walking away that we think we were supposed to give her money, but she wasn't so bold as to ask us. Maybe she was just saying a prayer for us, I like to think so.

After our blessing was performed, we stopped a while to look at the A-Bomb dome. This is a building that was near the hypo-center of the blast. The dome is in the state it was when the blast hit, just a skeleton which reminds visitors of the damage that was done.


A-Bomb Dome
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A-Bomb dome memorials
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As we were crossing a bridge to see the A-bomb dome a bit closer, we realized we were crossing the T-shaped bridge that the American pilot used as a target. The hypo-center was about 50 yards from this bridge. It was eerie to be at that point where one of our pilots sighted in his scope years ago.

Our map told us there was a castle in Hiroshima. This is a reproduction, of course. We weren't too impressed with the castle itself, but I decided to pay a few hundred yen to take a look inside. Ann decided to take a break on a bench near the castle. There were (as it seems there are everywhere in Japan) some vending machines with drinks and ice cream nearby. Good place for a break.


Hiroshima Castle gate
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Hiroshima Castle
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There was a museum inside, which was interesting, but the best part was their exhibit of samurai swords. They were all made in the samurai era, they must have had 20 of them on display. They were only the blades themselves, with etchings by the artist. It was really cool to see, I'm glad I stopped in!

I was also able to try on a replica of a samurai helmet. Where's Ann when you need her! I did manage to get a picture of this from the handy mirror they had on hand.


Self Portrait
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As we were leaving the castle area, we noticed some trees with signs near them. These trees were existing during the bombing, and have been propped up with bamboo ever since to serve as another reminder. The trees are narled, and strange looking from the blast.

We took the Shinkansen back to Kyoto for the night, and ate dinner at the Second House restaurant near our hostel. They specialize in the ever popular spaghetti and cake combo. I have to say, the spaghetti was not bad, and the cake really made the meal.


Spaghetti and Cake?
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Next stop, Himeji castle (cool)...