Hiroshima

On the advice of the couple I have eikaiwa with, I took a trip down to Hiroshima yesterday. I think most Americans know Hiroshima as that city that got blown up by the atomic bomb, but Japanese people know it as that city that got blown up by the atomic bomb that also has okonomiyaki and the Toyo Carp. So, I went to the Peace Park, which was built when Hiroshima was being rebuilt, very close to the hypocenter of the explosion.

The park is rather large and wide open, which is sort of notable just because this is Japan and nothing else is that wide. Hiroshima, however, is built on a relatively wide, flat, and low area of Japan, so it is possible. Hiroshima actually means "wide island," even. There's a museum at the park, which I paid the whopping 50 yen entrance fee for. That is less than 50 cents, so it's worth it. The museum is pretty alright. I have to say I knew a lot of the stuff, anyway, and have even seen the pictures before so it really wasn't that disturbing. I think it is pretty disturbing the first time for a lot of people. Anyway, the museum is pretty nice, but there is more stuff to see.


Here's some statue that is in the park. It is kind of far away from everything else, and it was not really explained in the museum, so I don't know what it is. It appears to be a woman carrying a child...


Here's the memorial cenotaph. I've never heard of a cenotaph before this. It's basically an arch/tunnel thing with a big block of rock in the middle. There's an inscription on it, and people pray in front of it for their lost loved ones. I just kind of looked at it for a minute, but I guess it is a big stop for people around the anniversary of the bombing, when the park is completely full of visitors. The park was pretty crowded, anyway. It took me half an hour to find somewhere to park, but I digress.


Here's the children's monument. The picture's not very good, I know, but if you are using this blog to learn things about Japan or see pictures of it, maybe you should try Wikipedia instead. It's basically a statue of a girl with arms outstretched standing on some type of weirdly-shaped structure.

When I went to look at this, a couple of Japanese women started looking at me curiously, which I am pretty much used to by this point, but I figured people in a big(gish) city would be more used to westerners. I should have figured that they were part of the 1% of the population that is Christian, and they would try to talk to me because they have been taught English and can identify easier targets like white dudes. So, they were amazed I could speak Japanese and we talked about what I do and where I was from. They were also amazed that I drove there. They gave me a little booklet about Jesus and peace or something, which I thanked them for. Like all good things, this awkward conversation also had to end, and they went on their way. I forgot to take a picture, so you'll just have to take my word for it.


Here's another monument in the park. I don't remember the name. It's a monument to a girl who died of radiation sickness as a result of the bomb. While in the hospital, she tried to fold 1000 paper cranes under the belief that doing so would cure her. Obviously it didn't, but people fold paper cranes and put them here, so there are always a bunch here which are constantly being replaced. There are long strings of them hanging from the monument. That's what those brightly colored things are in the picture.


Here's the most famous thing at the park: the Atomic Dome. It is what remains of a building from the time of the bombing. The city decided to leave it there as a reminder. Hiroshima was rebuilt as a "city of peace," and every time a government tests a nuclear device, the Mayor of Hiroshima sends a letter of protest, asking them to stop. Hiroshima-ans (Hiroshimans?) are extremely dedicated to the total eradication of nuclear weapons. There's a bunch of stuff to learn about it, but I'll just direct you here.

So, I was feeling pretty tired after the park, and it wasn't convenient for me to ride on a streetcar or go to a Carp game, so I decided to head back. I stopped in one of the northern wards of Hiroshima and ate some okonomiyaki, as well as bought a couple of small things. I'm terrible for not buying gifts for coworkers, I guess, but what are you gonna do? Okonomiyaki is pretty delicious, and I guess one of the more popular foods with westerners. They call it Japanese-style pancakes, but that is extremely misleading, since most pancakes aren't made of cabbage and meat and whatnot. Hiroshima has its own style of okonomiyaki, which I guess uses more cabbage than Osaka-style, and also usually features other stuff added like soba or udon, which are both kinds of noodles. I ordered one with udon and it was pretty good.

So, then I drove back. I know the pictures aren't great, but they were taken on my cell phone, and it is a huge pain to upload them to blogger, so BACK OFF, WILL YOU? I have to email them to myself, then download them, then upload them, which blogger "conveniently" decides means I want to put them all the top of the document, which means moving the html to where I actually want it. Come on, blogger, fix this stupid feature. Ok, so that's that.