Hiroshima city and Miyajima island

April 29th I joined a couple friends for a road trip to Hiroshima city. It's a mere 3-4 hour drive from Hyogo, but that's enough time to work up a decent appetite for the food Hiroshima is most famous for: Okonomi-yaki!!! Yum! Grilled noodles, sprouts, and seafood (or meat) between two egg-batter savory pancakes. Topped with a brown sauce, nori flakes, and mayo!!! It's amazing stuff, and one of these can fill me up for a whole day.

We spent the first night just having fun wandering around the night life area. Then we got caught in the rain on our walk back to the ryokan (a Japanese style inn). We went to bed pretty early so that we could wake up early to take the ferry to the island of Miyajima to see one of the "3 most beautiful sights of Japan". Itsukushima shrine welcomes visitors to the island with a "floating" torii gate. Well, it looks like it's floating if you arrive at high tide ;) What do you think?





The island is a sacred place with not only the beatiful Istukushima-jinja, but Buddhist temples as well. We wandered around through one of the temple's grounds for a long time and enjoyed a free sample of a special tea blended by the monks. The leaves were all a beautiful, rich green



We spent our last morning in Hiroshima at the Peace memorial museum. Emotionally draining, but it's one of those places everyone should go if they have the chance, especially Americans. It covers events leading up to, footage and photos the day of, and after, the Atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. I read through everything, soaking in much more than I ever did from history books. The information is displayed through historic, scientific, sociological, and sentimental perspectives. From explanations of how Atomic bombs work to displays of personal items left by those who died. Photos and models showed just how devastating the damage was.
One of my favorite parts was when we met a volunteer who spoke English. He explained that only 4 days after the bomb hit, the Hiroshima city streetcar service had a section of it's line up and running again. They ran it for free. The city was full of rubble and ash, so seeing this sign of civilization proved to be a much-needed sign of hope for survivors. To this day, Hiroshima proudly maintains a streetcar service as a main mode of public transportation.

Here's a picture of one of the very few buildings that "survived" the bombing; it's left up as a reminder, but also for a call for peace.




That's all I can fit in today, as I don't really like sitting at the computer. BUT! I can't wait to share pictures from my first-ever visit to a volcano!! So please check back in a day or 2 ;)

-Colleen