The first a-bomb

Trip Start May 06, 2007
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Trip End Jul 24, 2008


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Flag of Japan  ,
Thursday, April 10, 2008

After seeing the sight of the second atomic bomb to ever be dropped, it was only natural for me to visit the first.  Like Nagasaki, Hiroshima has completely recovered as a city and has devoted a sizable chunk of land to an peace museum and park.  Hiroshima has also maintained the A-bomb Memorial Dome, a former government building which was only 150 meters from the hypocenter and the closest building to actually survive in any standing form.  In the Peace Park, there's a Children's Memorial dedicated to Sadako Sasaki, a girl who developed leukemia at 11 years old after surviving the atomic bomb drop ten years prior.  She was convinced that if she folded 1000 paper cranes, she would be granted her wish to live.  Unfortunately she died despite having reached her goal two months earlier.  Children from all over the world have sent in paper cranes to be displayed as part of the memorial.  It's quite moving.

The Hiroshima museum was also well done and went into more detail on the technical aspects of the bombing than the Nagasaki museum.  Though it also had plenty of artifacts and testimonies from survivors.  Once again, I'm not going to go into much detail about the Peace Museum other than saying that atomic bombs are really bad.

While in Hiroshima, I couchsurfed with Adrienne, an Australian woman who teaches at an international school.  She's been living in Hiroshima for 8 months now.  We had a nice time together.  She introduced me to a really good Indian restaurant and also brought me along to a British friend's bachelorette party and Saturday night out on the town.  Fun times.

There was actually a food item special to Hiroshima that could easily be made vegetarian - okonomiyaki.  Okonomiyaki starts with a thin, crepe-like pancake on the bottom, topped with a cabbage and sprout mixture, fried noodles, a fried egg, and barbecue sauce in a layered fashion.  Typically there's pork included, but it's easy to order it without it.  It was okay, but nothing that I'd ever go out of my way to eat again.

From Hiroshima, I also visited Miyajima, an island nearby.  The main attraction on Miyajima is a famous shrine that's considered one of the most photographed spots in Japan.  It was nice, but didn't seem like anything super special to me.  Maybe I'm just jaded and don't like places swarming with tourists.  I did enjoy a really nice hike up to the top of the mountain and back down a different path.  It was nice to get away from all the tourists snapping away down at the bottom of the mountain for a few hours.
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