We checked out of our hotel and took the train to Osaka. We decided to not stay the night at our next destination; Hiroshima, but called ahead to a hotel in Osaka; Hotel SunRoute Umeda.
From the station we took a taxi to our new hotel and checked in. We walked back to the station, took a local train to Shin-Osaka (yes, it is a different city than Osaka), bought bento boxes (Japanese lunches that come in a smart package), and took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima.
We ate on the train (let me tell you, it feels very Japanese to be eating bento boxes on the Shinkansen!):
We arrived in Hiroshima.
I realize that going to Hiroshima is controversial. While we were "planning" our route, I had a strong feeling that aiming for Hiroshima was simply the right thing to do. Having now been there, that feeling has been confirmed. I believe it was important for us to learn all we could about the bomb's effects, as Americans and as humans.
The first thing we saw out of Hiroshima station is this fountain:
Near the fountain was this sign:
If that's too difficult to read, it says that the station was completely destroyed due to the first atomic bomb in history, however the surviving employees got one of the station's lines back in operation on August 7th and fixed enough to shuttle in supplies and offer refuge for survivors on the 8th. People. The bombing was on August 6th.
The next thing we encountered was the odd sensation of walking into a textbook. Sure, we've read about the bombing in various levels of school and heard about the tragedy... walking on the streets of Hiroshima 50 years later, however, is another thing entirely.
Compared to all the green we've been seeing, Hiroshima felt browner and (dare I say) a bit scummier than the rest of Japan. I don't mean it was dirty, not by any means... just a palpable feeling of a town in recovery. Maybe the "scum" feeling was because the rest of the country was obviously built around the surrounding nature (as opposed to US's habit of knocking down the nature, building, and then putting in more aesthetic nature), and there were few natural plants as they had been destroyed...
It was so amazing that the entire city had been rebuilt in just 50 years. There is definitely something to be said about the Japanese people's strength.
We took the bus towards Peace Memorial Park to go through the museum.
There was a wonderful combination of old and new, like the rest of the country:
We learned later these trams were designed based off the original city, but they had re-designed the roads to make them more efficient:
Across the street from the museum was this beautiful memorial that made me wish I had more knowledge of what it represented:
From across the street, this is the view of the museum:
We saw the famous A-Bomb Dome as soon as the bus pulled up (we got closer later):
We paid our admission to go through the museum. They gave us digital audio guides with earphones. The numbers over the exhibits corresponded to the numbers on the guide, and you were lead through the museum at your own pace.
I only took one picture of the inside (it felt kind of inappropriate to take m0re, even though they were allowed (kind of = absurdly)):
Do you see the tiles on and in the curved walls below the replica dome? Those are actually bronzed letters, and there were many many more. Every time any nation in the world tests a nuclear weapon, the mayor of Hiroshima writes a letter to the country's leader, pleading with them to stop and to destroy their weaponized nukes. Uncomfortably, the most recent letter written was to President Obama.
We spent several hours in there. I won't go into too much detail, but I will say I have a profoundly different perspective and understanding on what the effects were. There were some very intense exhibits, but each was presented without malice or underhanded drama. They weren't trying to make anyone feel guilty or demonize anyone. They were simply presenting facts and images, and pleading that nuclear weapons are destroyed and never used again.
I will describe the most striking exhibit, to me, that will always stay in my mind. I won't be too graphic, but I have to share it (if you feel you must skip this part, then skip the next paragraph):
You are being led from room to room with intense imagery and remains. Between two of the rooms is a hallway. The hallway is decorated like the inside of a brick building, with fake windows on either side. In the fake windows are pictures of destroyed landscape as far as the eye can see. Think the outskirts of Las Vegas, Nevada... where there is nothing but brown and black little shrubs and dust for miles. The fact that that type of devastation happened within a split second was felt as I walked through that hallway. That type of bomb is now the weakest nuclear weapon we (as in the world) have. Yikes.
We left the museum as it was closing.
Our next target was the famous A-Bomb Dome.
At this memorial, there is a fire which will burn until the last nuclear weapon on earth is disarmed and destroyed.
Underneath the Dome was a plaque which read:
"The A-bomb Dome is the ruins of the former Hiroshima Prefecture Industrial Promotion Hall which was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever to be used in the history of humankind on August 6, 1945-
The atomic bomb was detonated in the air at an altitude of approximately 600 meters almost right over the hall. The explosion by a single bomb claimed the lives of over 200,000 people and the city area of about 2-km radius was turned into ashes. In order to have this tragic fact known to succeeding generations and to make it a lesson for humankind, the reinforcement work of the ruins has been done by the contributions of many people who desire peace within and out of the country. The ruins shall be preserved forever. August 6, 1967 Hiroshima City"
The Dome is a very controversial memorial in Japan. Some Japanese did not want to have such a constant reminder of the horribleness of that day, but others felt it was important as described above.
As we left the area (in a daze) we saw a group of girls singing and being filmed for a music video (talk about sharp contrasts!). I was almost offended with the cheerfulness after what we had just seen, but then my common sense took over and I realized that Hiroshima had the most outdoor music (perhaps even the only outdoor music?) out of any other city we'd been to. Perhaps such a joyous expression is most needed in Hiroshima.
Cathartically enough, we walked past the girls and were crossing a bridge when we came across this guy flat-landing (if you don't what it is, please watch the video!):
Then we took the bus back to the station, the Shinkansen back to Shin-Osaka, and the bus back to Osaka. In a moment of gai-jin-ness Billy misplaced his Shinkansen transfer ticket! We tried to slyly walk past the check-point, thinking 'hey, there's a lot of people, maybe we'll get..' NO. They found him immediately. After much explaining, he got a little lame temporary ticket (don't be fooled by the folded up map in his hand - that is his plan!) as compared to Michael and my super-responsible-adult-awesomeness tickets:
In Osaka we ate at this excellent restaurant (Michael just took the waitress outside and pointed to the stuff that looked (and indeed was) good):
It made us feel like this:
Then we roamed around Osaka for a while, but it was late and things were closing... we stopped by a convenience store and I got this picture which is just for YOU Pocky nerds fans! BEHOLD:
By the way - did you know you can call anyone a nerd so long as you say something like "BEHOLD" afterwords? Takes one to know one I guess.... anyway we watched Despicable Me in Michael's room and went to sleep. Why did they separate us so decisively??
Goodnight, Michael!
