So we started our morning early- thanks to the most expensive alarm clock! We got breakfast at family mart and headed to the atomic bomb sight. The first atomic bomb was dropped at 8:15 August 6, 1945. Since that day Hiroshima has been trying to rebuild and make peace. There are 57 monuments at the peace park. We walked to all 57, I swear, Bill loves forced marches.
The first one we came across was one for the girls school that was incinerated. It has an umbrella over all the paper cranes. Love the Japanese thinking.
Next we walked through the peace gates. There are words of peace inscribed on the gates. We went back at night. Really beautiful.
Here is a quick selfie- Theo is sleeping.
This is a statue out in front of the museum. It is heart breaking. Many people on the outskirts of the bomb sight survived, but were walking dead. This depicts a mother trying to pick her two children up and walk to safety.
This is the tomb of all the unidentified bodies. It is the Japanese belief that if the souls are not identified, they can not rest peacefully. This is also the sight of whee Japan has declared to never go to war again.
Here is a clock set to 8:15 surrounded by atomic bomb rubble.
Below the clock is peace hall it is a place of silence and rememberance. It is soul shaking. I have felt American guilt at Okinawan battle sights and in Vietnam, but here I felt sadness. I did not feel we should hide that we are American. I felt so sad for the city and is people, survivors and civilians.
Next we walked to the peace bell. It is rung at 8:15am every day. Surrounding the bell are cases of art work made out of paper cranes.
Here is a shot of the mall area with the museum at the end.
This is one of a few remaining buildings from when the A-bomb was dropped. This was a civic market center, considered advanced architecture for the time period.
There has been a lot of controversy over this building. One side says tear it down because it is a reminder for all the lives lost. The other side says keep it up as a reminder of the cost of war.
I think it is amazing to see the structure. It makes you think, if the bomb could do this to a building, imagine what it felt like. The bomb was dropped 300meters off target. It exploded 600meters above a hospital. It was 280meters diameter after 1sec after detination. And it was 6million degrees Celsius at its core. These are dumbfounding facts. After the bomb the ground temp was 5,000 degrees Celsius.
After walking around outside we went through the museum. It was fascinating to look at all the artifacts and read all about the events. Surprisingly the museum was factual, not anti American or anti war. Just, this is how it was, this is what happened. I was thoroughly engaged in reading all of the information. It was like I was relearning about the war in the pacific. Many times Okinawa was mentioned and it is putting all the pieces together. I have never understood the pacific part of World War II in its entirety, but I am beginning to understand. The musem was very well done. I really enjoyed it. Great start to the day. We saw all 57 monuments- or it sure felt like it- and it was only noon. We headed to lunch.
We wanted Okonomyaki for lunch, but there was a line out the door. So we had Mcdonalds instead. Afterrwards we had macaroons for desert. We had five different flavors- orange, lemon, chocolate, grape and frambrosia- whatever that is. They were so good. Neither one of us had ever eaten macaroons.
Next we walke to the Hiroshima Castle. Here you can see it off in the distance.
We walked onto the grounds, into the outside wall, and then Theo had a massive meltdown. We changed him, fed him and pulled him out of the carrier. Nothing was helping. So before going into the castle, we turned around and headed home. On the way out of the castle grounds we saw a bride and groom photo shoot.
As soon as we walked away from the castle grounds, the baby fell asleep. We will hit the castle tomorrow. But since we had a sleeping baby we thought we would capitalize on that. When we arrived we went through this really cool mall. And I had seen a sign for baby clothes. I wanted to check it out. I love looking at baby Japanese clothes. They Are so darn cute. And expensive. They were selling onsies for $59. Crazy. They also had toys but they were really expensive. It was still really fun to walk through.
Once we returned to the hotel we relaxed and had a snack. We had Mountain Dew fries. And interesting snack to say the least. And two hr rest and we headed out to dinner. Time to check out this Okonomyaki place.
It was raining/spitting a wintery mix so our hotel let is borrow two umbrellas. We walked down to the restaurant and by the time we made it down there it was snowing.
We ordered dinner and prepped for the feast that was to arrive.
I am not sure what Okonomyaki means, but it is noodles, cabbage, meat (pork and shrimp) noodles, a pancake, cheese and egg topped with sauce all warmed on a griddle and served on a griddle.
That was Bill's- covered in green onion. Mine is the one with cheese on it. To the left of his.
It was so tasty. We have had something similar. But this was better. It was so good!
To end the night we walked home via the peace park to check the sights all light up at night. It was drizzling. I know we have recently been to S. Korea and Nagano- both physically colder than Hiroshima. But inswear it is colder here that the other two places. I am uncomfortably cold all the time. My ears hurt, it's so cold. But we had a great first day.
Tomorrow there is a relay road race through the city. We are not quite sure what that means. Hopefully it does not mean to mess up our plans. Also if it could warm up and stop drizzling from the sky, that would be awesome.
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