Today was our trip to Hiroshima. Obviously it is a very sobering and educational experience but it was such an interesting day overall.

We started the day early with breakfast at 7am and being on the skinkansen around 8:30. The ride to Hiroshima was about a 2 hour ride on the bullet train. I spent the time confirming our kimono appointments for tomorrow.

Once we got off the train, we got some food. I got a cookies and cream cake and vanilla Frappuccino from Starbucks. After food we headed over to see the dome. The dome is a still standing building from before the A bomb fell. It was incredible to see, especially the before and after.

After that we walked around the Peace Memorial Park. There were many flowers and school children going on a trip to see Hiroshima. We also then learned about the legend of the paper cranes. There’s a statue representing a school girl that got leukemia from the bomb and how she made paper cranes to wish for her health. The story goes that she died before she could finish all the cranes to grant her wish ( you need 1001) but her classmates finished it for her. We saw a group of school children bow and say thank you to the statue in the park.

After that we headed towards the actual museum. I didn’t take many photos since this was a very personal experience and it felt wrong to really take photos of such a thing.

The museum itself was wonderfully put together. The story of the bombing was extremely well told and made me cry at one point. I think the most impactful thing for me was seeing the clothes of the children that died from the bomb and reading the stories of the people who came home covered in burns and radioactive energy. The destruction was everyone and was really emotional.

The whole museum was a very emotionally strong experience for me that I don’t think I could put into words all that well. It really is something you have to see for yourself.

After the museum we sat outside for a bit. Some school children ( like 8 or 10 years old) came up to us and said hello. I responded in Japanese and the kids literally jumped back in shock. It was so cute!

Afterwards we went on an adventure to find Hiroshima Castle. It was so hot outside and I was in jeans so I wasn’t doing that hot. We eventually made it to the adjoining shrine and relaxed there for a bit. It was pretty with the guardian there being koi fish.

After that we headed to dinner. We got okonomiyaki ( Japanese pizza but instead of crust it’s cabbage). I tried it but wasn’t a fan. The meat and mochi in it was good though.

Afterwards, a small group broke off to run to the Pokémon center! I was in that group haha. We took a taxi over to the center, ran up the stairs and got in. I got some cookies while everyone else shopped. The reason we rushed was because we had to meet back up with the rest of the group to make our train back to Kyoto. We had 20 minutes to meet up with everyone and we were 30 minutes out of the station. We literally speed walked back to the station and made it just in time! We got on our train and I took a little nap. From here we just got back to the hotel and got ready for bed.

See ya next time blog for our very special Kimono edition!