We visited Hiroshima today, and I learned a lot about the repercussions of that attack as well as the impact it has on the people of Japan even until today. We took the Shinkansen again to Hiroshima from Kyoto, and as soon as we exited the train we caught a bus near the station to take us to Peace Memorial Park. But first, food! I got a burger and fries from a food court area across from the park, and it was honestly one of the better tasting burgers I’ve had, if it wasn’t for its structural integrity (or lack thereof). The sauce, while sweet, also made the buns a little soggy, and so the meat slipped around and the burger was a bit messy to eat. It tasted good though, and had a fried onion patty on top of the meat patty. Overall, really good!

After that, we headed into the park and saw the A-Bomb Dome, structural remains of a main showcase building that was virtually right underneath the point of explosion of the atomic bomb. It was shocking just how much of the building remained despite being in almost the center of the blast zone. 

After that, we saw the Peace Memorial, and then entered the Hiroshima Memorial Museum. I’m not going to sugarcoat it: the museum was pretty heavy. The photographs were often graphic and the descriptions harrowing, but it was all real. It was insight and information that, although tough to stomach sometimes, was extremely necessary for context and learning. They even had a 1/100 bronze replica of the A-Dome, both before the bomb and after. 

Once we had went through the museum, we then headed off towards Hiroshima castle to go see a Veteran’s Shrine. I learned from Yuuko-san, who we’ve been traveling on the Shinkansen with and has been our amazing guide on some of these trips, that the Veteran’s Shrine is actually a type of Shinto shrine, and that each prefecture has one, usually near their castles. This is because they originally were for praying for the soldiers who passed away during war, and now people use them to pray for the dead. I washed my hands and mouth at the entrance of the temple, and then performed the praying ritual, and it was cool to do something that the locals do often that I hadn’t really done before. 

Once we finished there, we headed to a restaurant to have okonomiyaki! It was super delicious, and mine had pork, cheese, and seafood/squid in it, which was really cool! 

Afterwards, we split up and I went into Bic Camera for a little bit, and was able to find the Nintendo Switch section by asking a worker in Japanese! I almost bought Fire Emblem Engage, and was shocked at how affordable the game prices were! The store was also huge with multiple floors, it felt like an extra tall Best Buy! 

After returning to the hotel, I crashed once more and went to sleep. On to the next day!