Lost & Found: Hiroshima: A mixed bag of feelings

I rode the shinkansen direct from Kyoto to Hiroshima and arrived well before noon...I know I've said it before, but I just can't get over the speed and comfort of the shinkansens. There was a K's House in Hiroshima too, so I had booked there for my 2 nights in Hiroshima. Their directions said it took 4 minutes by tram to get there; that as way off, it was a minute max! Because I was expecting the ride to be a little longer and I couldn't hear the stops being announced, I actually missed my stop and only realized it a couple stops later. Luckily, Hiroshima is a relatively smaller city, so backtracking to the hostel was shorter than I expected.

Arrival in Hiroshima.

After getting settled in, I headed off to find a restaurant recommended by the Lonely Planet guidebook, Bakudanya, that was becoming very popular serving the Hiroshima specialty: tsukemen. So popular that when I got there, I had to wait for a seat (a first time for me in Japan)! It's ramen-like noodles (closer to egg noodles in taste and consistency) served with various topping (almost the same as what's served with ramen like soft-boiled egg and pork), but not served in soup base. Instead, the soup base is served cold in a separate bowl, and only comes at various levels of spiciness (depending on your personal tastes), and you eat the noodles by dipping it first into the spicy soup base. Obviously I chose near the hottest spiciness level (and it actually was quite hot), and I ordered the regular combo, so I got the usual set of toppings. It was very delicious and quite fun to eat!

My tsukemen lunch.

Outside Bakudanya (there were people waiting after I finished too).

After lunch, I walked up to Heiwa-dori, referred to as the Promenade of Peace in English. It's a wide, tree-lined street that leads to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. There were a few small memorials scattered about, but it wasn't anything special in my opinion. I followed the street to the park, and visited the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum first (for a mere 50 yen admission fee). The museum was a mixed bag of feelings for me. The displays and atmosphere were definitely sobering and moving (some Japanese tourists were noticeably fighting back tears), and I felt fortunate that I got the chance to see a glimpse of the horrendous and damaging effects of the atomic bomb. The capabilities and power of human innovation is mind-boggling sometimes. But as I looked over each and every display (this next part may be considered a bit heartless?), there were the small Chinese ancestry and Canadian (/Allies) parts in me that couldn't help but feel what Japan suffered was justified - not the direct victims in Hiroshima (and Nagasaki), but Japan as a whole. And to be frank, if the nation had not been delivered such a strong blow, would it have evolved to the friendly (to foreigners) advocate of world peace that it has become now? (I'm not hating on Japan though; I think anyone can tell I love Japan.) But this is a debatable topic, and this is a record of my memories, not a discussion forum haha. I spent at least 90 minutes in the museum, then explored the rest of the park.

Along the Promenade of Peace.

Entrance to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

Inside the museum.

Diorama of Hiroshima directly before and after the dropping of the atomic bomb.

Replicating what the atmosphere immediately after the bombing might have been like.

Where the bomb was detonated.

A person was sitting on the steps of a building near the hypocenter when the bomb exploded. His shadow became etched in the stone due to the heat (and it's believed he was instantly disintegrated).

A woman who had the pattern of the kimono she was wearing at the time of the explosion imprinted into her skin.

Roof tiles that weer fused together from the heat.

Paper cranes folded by Sadako Sasaki, the Japanese girl who inspired the folding of 1000 (and many more) origami paper cranes for world peace.

A clock at the entrance of the museum. It's supposed to countdown the remaining days the human race has left as war and violence continues. The description said that as more chaos ensued, the gears of the clock would spin faster and the time left would be reduced. When world peace was finally achieved, the clock would be stopped. If the clock ever counts down to 0 days, the clock is supposed to self-destruct.

The Memorial Cenotaph, where the annual Peace Memorial Ceremony is held.

The Peace Flame, which will be kept lit until world peace is achieved.

The Statue of the A-Bomb Children. Thousands of paper cranes hang in the glass cases behind the statue.

The A-Bomb Dome.

The Bell of Peace, which peace ring to ask for world peace.

Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound.

The Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims, where you can the photos of all the victims of the Hiroshima bombing.

The A-Bomb Dome up-close. It's also called the Hiroshima Peace Memorial, and it's designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The sky started to get darker as I walked around the A-Bomb Dome; it looked like it was going to rain soon. I didn't know what to see next, since the Peace Park really is the main attraction of Hiroshima, so I decided Hijiyama-koen (Hijiyama Park) would be a good place to visit next and to possibly kill some time while I figured out what to do next. So I caught the tram the park, but when I stepped off, a light drizzle started. Hoping it wouldn't pick up, I continued to walk towards the park, but within a few seconds, it started to heavily pour! So what do you do when it starts to pour in Japan? Well the first thing that came to my mind was the shopping arcades haha (since they are sheltered). So I hopped back onto the next tram from the same stop and headed over to the only shopping arcade, the Hondori shopping arcade. If the subway runs Tokyo and the buses run Kyoto, then the trams run Hiroshima (and the routes aren't complicated!).

At the tram stop near Hijiyama-koen. Look how dark and wet it got!

At Hondori shopping arcade.

I killed some time walking the entire shopping arcade, then decided to head to the nearby Okonomimura, a small building with restaurants only selling okonomiyaki on all of its floors (it's also fittingly called Okonomiyaki Village in English)! Hiroshima okonomiyaki is cooked a little differently from the okonomiyaki in Osaka. In Hiroshima, the cabbage is cooked above the batter, while the cabbage is mixed in with the batter in Osaka; the Hiroshima style also uses a lot more cabbage than the Osaka style (the cabbage is pushed down during cooking so it is of normal thickness). Yakisoba (fried noodles) is usually added in Hiroshima style as well. Because of the variation in style, the Hiroshima style of okonomiyaki is often called Hiroshima-yaki. While noticeably different in taste, it was still very delicious. I chose the Lonely Planet recommended Sarashina - turned out it was quite well-known among locals (the owner/cook even gave me a sticker with the restaurant name, which apparently some people collect.

At Okonomimura for dinner. Sarashina was on the second floor, so I didn't bother checking out the other floors (it's just restaurants right?) I tried their mochi okonomiyaki - okonomiyaki cooked with mochi as the main ingredient. I wanted to try something different, and it definitely was, but still very tasty.

After dinner, I didn't know what else to do (Hiroshima is a smaller city, so there's less things to do), so I decided to wander the shopping arcade some more. I even stopped off at a game centre, where I won myself some dessert! Then I wandered around Hon-dori for a while (the main street in Hiroshima) just to look around before heading back to hostel. Hiroshima really is a small city. There were only a couple travellers in the hostel when I got back, and there wasn't much to do (though I did the Jumbo in the international newspaper haha) - K's House Hiroshima is the smallest of the 3 K's House hostels I stayed at. So I headed back out to the downtown core along Hon-dori just before 10PM, only to find most of the stores had already closed! The shopping arcade looked almost deserted. So there was nothing better to do than sleep at this point haha.