Hiroshima in Half a Day

Arrived in Hiroshima two days ago. By the time I got settled into my hostel (I stayed at J-Hoppers Hiroshima, which was very nice), it was already noon. There wasn’t a huge list of things I wanted to do in Hiroshima so I figured I could get through most of it in one afternoon. The main attractions focus around the memorials to the victims of World War II, particularly the victims of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. I went to the Peace Memorial Museum, which was very interesting because it gives the Japanese perspective on the war mixed with Hiroshima’s somewhat unique perspective on nuclear weapons. The museum does a good job of demonstrating the extent of the destruction Hiroshima faced when the bomb was dropped. Essentially, everything and everyone was turned to dust. The bomb was actually detonated hundreds of meters above ground, but the sand in the ground melted into something that looks like glass, roof tiles fused together, and glass bottles turned molten. My understanding is that there are only two or so buildings in Hiroshima that are still around from pre-WWII. Here are some photos:

Photos: Various memorials at the Peace Memorial Park.


Left: Fused roof tiles. Right: Glass bowl with sand fused to it, melted glass bottle.


Left: The Hiroshima A-Dome. Right: Watch that stopped when bomb was detonated.
Hiroshima is a city that has really dedicated itself to the cause of world peace, and the city government is very active in advocating for the destruction of all nuclear weapons. The War Memorial Park is a beautiful section of the city carved out by rivers, and you can see several war memorial statues, an eternally burning flame, etc. Very beautiful, and it also serves as a nice, calm area very close to the busy city center. The War Memorial Park and the museum seem to be very popular for elementary school field trips, because everywhere I looked there were many groups of small children in matching uniforms and cute matching hats. I managed to get a great video of Japanese school children ringing what I assume is some sort of memorial prayer bell. Enjoy!


After checking out the memorials, I took a bit of time to walk around downtown a bit, especially the shopping districts. Lots of very cool shops with interesting merchandise.

That night I met up with a friend of mine, Tomo, who lived in the US for two years before returning to Japan in January. Tomo brought along a few friends of his who had graduated from Waseda University, which is where I will be studying when I finish my travels. We all went to this really cool little restaurant where everything on the menu cost 280 yen (roughly 3 US dollars). We drank a lot of beer and Awamori, and we ate TONS of food. The place sounds very cheap, but we ended up ordering such a variety and so many drinks that we all ended up paying about 3,000 yen each. I got to try a lot of very interesting Japanese dishes, which I am planning to post about in the future. The other reason that this restaurant is so neat is due to the way that you place orders… Basically you have a menu and a little electronic wand that looks like a giant pen. You wave the wand over the item you want to order, then over the number of that item that you want, and then over one final place on the menu, and your order is transmitted immediately to the kitchen. Drinks arrive at your table in less than a minute, and food also comes out very quickly, depending on what the dish is.

In general, I found the people of Hiroshima to be exceptionally kind, and they loved talking to an English-speaking foreigner. In fact, while walking to my hostel, an older Japanese woman saw me looking at a map, so she ran over to me and asked if she could help me find something. I already knew where I needed to go, but she insisted on walking 5 and a half blocks with me to my hostel! We talked along the way, and once we got to my hostel she turned around and walked back the way we had come. I am constantly amazed at the hospitality that the Japanese show me.