trip

Atomic Bomb Dome

random lemon sitting on the gate outside the dome!!

the telegrams written to various countries by Hiroshima mayors

world's largest rice scooper

room, post lunch - FINALLY I am writing about the trip. Geez that took me forever.

So on Wednesday I made it to Nagoya Station by 9:00. By 9:45ish everyone else was there so we went and got on the shinkansen. That is the bullet train of Japan. France's TGV just edges it out of being the fastest train in the world. We stopped at a bunch of stops though so it took 2 and a half hours. After having a lunch break at Hiroshima station we went by street car or rail car (however you call it) to our hotel.

Whenever we, the IES program kids, go on a trip together our director books our stay at a traditional Japanese inn. They are so cool: tatami floors, futon, yukata (Japanese robe like things), an onsen (big fancy Japanese bath), good Japanese food, etc. I really like the ryokan (inns). However when we got to our ryokan we couldn't check in yet so we deposited our stuff in a corner of the lobby and were told we had until dinner to explore on our own.

I was in a group with seven people, including myself. We walked all around the area and found tons of memorials. The atomic bomb dome was right across the street from our ryokan. This was a government building originally and it was one of the few few buildings that was still standing (although completely burned out) after the atomic bomb's blast. It was decided that it should be preserved as it was after the blast and memorialized for future generations. So we took a lot of pictures of that.

After our 5th or 6th memorial our group split into two. Some of us wanted to go to the Peace Gardens and some of us wanted to go to the Peace Museum. I and three others went to the museum (I have seen plenty of gardens and I was tired of being outside in the bright sun).

The museum was as horrific as you can imagine. I have studied WWII a lot and I have also studied the atomic bombings a lot so I was not shocked by a lot of what I saw (desensitized to some degree). Some people were pretty affected by it though. My "favorite" part of the museum was the huge walls that displayed all the telegrams that the mayors of Hiroshima have sent to countries every time they test a new nuclear missile. I hadn't known that since 1968 they have been sending letters asking / pleading with other countries to stop testing and creating nuclear weapons. There were so many telegrams on the wall, so many.

After the museum I stopped by one more memorial and then went back to the ryokan. Got checked in, settled in, and then went to dinner in one of the banquet halls. Dinner is always delicious and there was sooooo much of it. :D

After dinner I went to an internet cafe because this ryokan didn't have wifi or an internet room like the last one at Inuyama did. I spent time walking around the streets after I was finished at the internet cafe. It was so nice and cool because it was night and that day had been so warm and sunny (yuck). I was loving the darkness and cool breeze outside. The buildings were cool and everything was lit up. I happened to pass the video game store a bunch of the students said they were going to after dinner. So I went in and looked around and talked to some of them. I walked back with 2 of my 3 roommates. Then I visited the onsen with them (community bathing is a huge cultural aspect of Japan). Stayed in the hot water until we were dizzy and then went back to our room.

The next day we ate breakfast at the ryokan and checked out. We took a rail car and a ferry to Miyajima, an island off of Hiroshima. This island is a well designed tourist attraction / trap. First thing you notice is that there are deer everywhere. They are tame (unless they think you have food, then they follow you mercilessly). It is a small town with a ton of shops and attractions. They have the world's largest rice scoop there (that is, the wooden spoon used to scoop rice not like, a mountain of rice or something). They have a huge tori (Shinto gate) that is in the sea when tide is in and on the beach when tide is out. They of course have a huge shinto shrine to go along with the tori. They also have a mountain with lots of various shrines and attractions on it. You can take the rope way most of the way up the mountain and walk up the remaining fourth on foot.

We went to our ryokan first, and again couldn't check in right away. So we dumped our luggage and split into groups again and went off to explore the island. Dinner was at 7, so we had plenty of time. It was raining off and on so that made me happy. ^_^ My group saw everything I mentioned in the above paragraph. The mountain was really cool. We went up to the summit and it was a great view (when the clouds weren't blocking it). Eventually we got above the clouds and above the rain so that was neat.

After quite a long day we returned to the ryokan and checked in. I discovered that this ryokan had free wifi so yay! Dinner was delicious again and even MORE food this time. :D The onsen was bigger than the last one too. I got to bed early and we left the island at 10ish.

We took the railcar back to Hiroshima station and took a shinkansen to Himeji. Himeji has a big castle that our program director really wanted us to see. In another week or so it will be closed to the public for 5 years so it can undergo renovations. We dropped off our luggage in coin lockers and were off. It was a cool castle.

After everyone was assembled back at Himeji station (which actually took some doing) we took another shinkansen all the way back to Nagoya. I took the same train as Leigh so we talked until her stop came up. Then once I got off at Kōzōji I called my host mom and she came and got me. It was a very good trip definitely.