After an hour ride to Shinagawa station, we grabbed brunch in the food court, got our first Eki stamps (more on them later) and boarded the bullet train to Hiroshima.
We’d reserved seats on the right hand side in case we were lucky enough to have a clear day. And indeed we were.
Mount Fuji had been on the wish list for all three of us when we planned this trip, but we quickly realized a stop there would take too much time on this short visit. Nice to get a good view.
We’d set our sights on okonomiyaki, a regional specialty, for our sole dinner in Hiroshima. We settled on Okamoto’s and were not disappointed.
The little restaurant was in an industrial building near the train station. About 20 other okonomiyaki restaurants shared the 6th floor with the one we’d selected. The little counter restaurant could serve about 10 cozy customers.
Okonomiyaki is a savory pancake dish cooked on a teppanyaki grill (think Benihana). The toppings are the big draw, all cooked on the grill and stacked on the pancake: cabbage, meat, seafood, egg, noodles, mayonnaise, cheese, Worcestershire sauce, bonito flakes, pork belly, etc. Our counter offered 6 varieties; we tried three.
It was one of the most fun meals I’ve ever had. The owner and chef kept us entertained. You cut off chunks with your individual spatula and eat off your plate. The grill keeps the food warm. The plastic sheet hanging behind us keeps the heat in the small space.
HIROSHIMA - Day 2
We started at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, where we had booked early opening tickets for the museum. We also had audio guide tickets.
It’s a sobering exhibit, as one would expect. We spent a couple of hours in the museum before heading outside. The museum is dedicated to documenting the city’s bombing on August 6, 1945 and its aftermath, in hopes that awareness of the devastating impact of atomic warfare deters it from ever happening again.
The collection is full of artifacts, photographs, witness’s drawings and written/audio testimonials. It’s organized into sections about the blast zone, lost victims, survivor experiences, black rain, lost children, radiation effects, orphans, development of the atomic bomb, anti-nuclear treaties, etc. It also fully acknowledges Japan’s accountability for instigating the war in the Pacific.
I took only one photo inside. It didn’t occur to me. Seeing the torn and burned clothing of children who were never found, or a child’s tricycle, or gruesome photos of burn victims or keloid scars don’t belong here.
The Peace Park contains much more than the museum, shown above. It’s a wide park-like area covering much of the blast zone with monuments and memorials.
The Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims is a chamber below a clock frozen at 8:15, the time of the bombing. Approached by a slanting circular track that descends deep underground, it commemorates all of victims of the atomic bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Over 140,000 small tiles honor the dead.
The chest under the cenotaph in the center of the Peace Park holds a list of all of the victims. In the distance, the Atomic Dome.
This young boy is examining before and after models of the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. The bomb exploded almost directly above the hall, sparing it from most of the outward flow of the blast. After years of debate it was decided to preserve the skeleton, known since the blast as the Atomic Dome.
The Peace Bell. Visitors can toll it by hitting it with the log suspended to its left.
The Children’s Peace Monument was paid for by donations from children in thousands of schools in Japan and around the world.
The colorful showcases behind the monument are crammed full of paper cranes. The girl whose death inspired the monument died from leukemia 10 years after she was exposed in the blast. She had made endless cranes after learning that if you make a thousand paper cranes, your wish will come true.
About a mile from the Atomic Dome is Hiroshima Castle, built by feudal lord Terumoto Mori in 1591 after he visited the castle in Kyoto. The multi-moat enclosed castle complex was used as the Imperial Army General Headquarters during World War II. The entire complex was destroyed in the atomic bomb.
The reconstructed castle is, as was the original, in the lower right corner of the center square.
The Hiroshima Gokoku Shrine is contained within the park-like castle grounds. Gokoku shrines are Shinto shrines built to honor dead killed in war. Its torii gate survived the atomic blast. The shrine was rebuilt after the war.
Prayers are written on the wood boards to the right and unlucky fortune left as paper knots on the left.
The castle itself - imposing and beautiful.
Inside were artifacts and displays on the origin of the castle, and various furniture, weaponry, armor etc used by the feudal lords and their samurai. There was less English signage the higher you went.
Nonetheless, Mark made it to the top balcony.
We took the bullet train to Kyoto, checked into our ryokan (traditional Japanese inn), granted a quick dinner and headed to our night tour of Kyoto’s Gion District.
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