After having a great time in Kyoto we caught our Shinkansen to Hiroshima. Upon our arrival, we were welcomed with pouring rain...bummer. The group decided to venture out, rain or shine, since we knew there was a ton of things we wanted to see. After consulting a soggy map, we sloshed our way to the Hiroshima Castle.
The first thing we noticed about the castle, was that there was no castle. Said castle was destroyed by the atomic bomb. Later, I found out that part of the castle had been rebuilt, but we didn't see it. We did however spot a guard outpost and made it in 30 minutes before closing. As we tried to take in 5 stories of history in half of an hour, we spotted an area where you can take photos with samurai and kimono clothes. We were able to snap this picture right before they called for people to leave.
That night we walked around and found a fantastic place to have dinner which overlooked the streets. The table had two grills and they brought out raw meat and different sauces for us.
It had been a long day of walking so we headed back to the hotel to relax and rest our feet. In fact, Katie drew some burning hot water in the bath for us to soak our feet in.
The following day, I was especially excited because we were to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as well as the island of Miyojima. The first point of interest is the A-Bomb dome.
What makes this so interesting is that it was located very close to the center of the explosion. Since there wasn't much of a sideways force from the blast, the building remained standing. The people of Hiroshima have vowed to preserve the building exactly how it looked right after the explosion.You can see it on the left side of the photo taken right after the blast.
The next stop was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. As a self-proclaimed WWII buff, I could hardly contain my excitement when we entered! When you walk into the museum you are immediately hit with an air of respect. Respect for the 150,000 who perished in the blast, respect for the citizens of Hiroshima who immediately rebuilt their great city, and respect for the bomb itself. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I was overwhelmed by the amount of information/photos/displays. With something so historically significant though, you wouldn't want to leave anything out. Here were some photos I took.
The first thing we noticed about the castle, was that there was no castle. Said castle was destroyed by the atomic bomb. Later, I found out that part of the castle had been rebuilt, but we didn't see it. We did however spot a guard outpost and made it in 30 minutes before closing. As we tried to take in 5 stories of history in half of an hour, we spotted an area where you can take photos with samurai and kimono clothes. We were able to snap this picture right before they called for people to leave.
That night we walked around and found a fantastic place to have dinner which overlooked the streets. The table had two grills and they brought out raw meat and different sauces for us.
It had been a long day of walking so we headed back to the hotel to relax and rest our feet. In fact, Katie drew some burning hot water in the bath for us to soak our feet in.
The following day, I was especially excited because we were to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum as well as the island of Miyojima. The first point of interest is the A-Bomb dome.
What makes this so interesting is that it was located very close to the center of the explosion. Since there wasn't much of a sideways force from the blast, the building remained standing. The people of Hiroshima have vowed to preserve the building exactly how it looked right after the explosion.You can see it on the left side of the photo taken right after the blast.
The next stop was the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. As a self-proclaimed WWII buff, I could hardly contain my excitement when we entered! When you walk into the museum you are immediately hit with an air of respect. Respect for the 150,000 who perished in the blast, respect for the citizens of Hiroshima who immediately rebuilt their great city, and respect for the bomb itself. I think I speak for everyone when I say that I was overwhelmed by the amount of information/photos/displays. With something so historically significant though, you wouldn't want to leave anything out. Here were some photos I took.
A small area of Hiroshima before and after the blast.
Tricycle that a little boy was riding when he was partially hit by the blast. He died that night.
After the bomb was dropped, a heavy black rain poured down for over an hour depositing more nuclear fallout throughout the area.
It is called the Peace Memorial Museum for a reason, one of the main points the museum tries to drive home is to annihilate all atomic arms in the world. Here is a counter for the number of days since the dropping of the A-bomb on Hiroshima and the number of days since the last nuclear bomb test.
Once again, there was so much to take in and talk about that I wasn't able to include everything in this post. If you would like to see more pictures of Hiroshima just click here.
After the museum, we were on our way to Miyojima...
-Seth
After the museum, we were on our way to Miyojima...
-Seth
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