05/25/2023

Classic start with breakfast. The karaage was yummy! As was the croissant! Not sure what the spread was ontop of the bread & lettuce but it was alright!

We have a long day ahead of us today, as we are visiting Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park as well as the museum.

The shinkansen ride was beautiful as usual. My favorite part is seeing the fields & mountains.

Before heading in, we stopped by a small food court for lunch. I got this deeelicious cookie & cream chiffon cake from starbucks with Jess, Belle and Megan.

Conveniently placed tree that hides the dome from view (?).

Conveniently placed random man that ruined my almost perfectly clear shot (?).

I took exactly zero photos once we wandered into the park & museum. Besides being ‘respectful’ and not lifting my phone to snap photos, I also felt it was much more respectful to spend my time reading as many plaques & text descriptions as I could. The main exhibition inside the museum is the permanent exhibition, which displayed a large amount of personal belongings left behind by victims.

There was a projected simulation of the timeline & destruction path of the bombing near the entrance of the exhibition which offered a very helpful visual diagram of how the land looked before and after the destruction.

The whole experience was, needless to say, extremely depressing & sobering. When I was learning about nuclear energy & war a few months ago, I ended up doing a deep dive into the destruction of Hiroshima, but there are just experiences & artifacts that you don’t see online. Reading so many personal quotes & stories from victims’ families, seeing the tattered & burnt clothing of victims, and seeing chunks of glass & metal fused together from the sheer heat of the blast really hit me.

Something I really appreciated was how well-designed the exhibit was! The flow of sections leading into the next physical area/room were well-planned, and the one room with victims’ photos/plaques being displayed within a glass or acrylic panel next to gently lit display cases were nothing short of beautiful, elegant & respectful. The text was easily legible despite the dim lighting, and the vibe of the room paid tribute to the tragic event very well.

Now for something that’s just as distressing as the contents we just explored in the museum. This insane clock is right outside the entrance to the exhibits (but inside the building).

If you’re having a hard time reading the text in the photo above, here’s a snippet from the plaque: “The cogwheels represent a virtual countdown which warms us that we are on the path leading to towards the annihilation of humanity. The cogwheel at the top rotates 100 times per minute, but will spin faster if the earth shows signs of being in danger. If it reaches the immovable cogwheel at the bottom, the clock will automatically self destruct.”

HUH?

I didn’t get a video but the cogwheel at the top was spinning pretty fast….and even if the plaque is just hypothetical, I still have so many questions. Some of our classmates spent a good while discussing what we think the text means, and I tried to not fall into a deep pit of existential dread like how I usually do during the conversation.

After the museum, my feet & soul absolutely died while we were dragged around past our bodies’ limitations (or just mine, at least). I sat near the outskirts of the castle with a few others while the rest of the class trudged onwards and then we got okonomiyaki for dinner and went back to the hotel in Kyoto.