Hiroshima

Hiroshima was one of my favorite places in Japan. In addition to the history, and the fact that my family is from there, and the ocean, I just really loved Hiroshima as a city!

So here are some pics from our day there:


This is the A-Bomb Dome. It's the only building left from the atomic bomb. (There were a few others, but they were torn down to make way for new buildings.) There was this huge debate as to whether or not to tear this building down as well, but historical significance and remembrance won the day, and it's a great reminder to everyone.


This is one of the many cool memorials at the Peace Park in Hiroshima. This is the Children's Peace Memorial. It's made specifically in remembrance of one little girl who was in the city when the bomb dropped and had no symptoms of it until she contracted lukemia twelve years later. She thought that if she could make 1,000 paper cranes, she would somehow be save, hence the symbolism of the crane in association with the Children's memorial.

The boxes you can see in the background are filled with cranes (mostly paper). The three pictures below are some of the cranes that are in the boxes.






Our tour guide at the museum said that Hiroshima receives 10 billion paper cranes each year. That's a lot of cranes!


This is the peace bell. Anyone can go and ring it. It had a beautiful inscription next to it, and it's great to hear it ringing consistently while you walk through the park.


This picture is sideways, but you get the idea. Some lily pads near the peace bell.


This is a mound made of cremated remains of the victims of the atomic bomb. Weird, but moving. It's quite the large mound.


The eternal flame of peace. They say it won't be extinguished until every nuclear weapon is gone from the face of the earth. I think they may be waiting a while...


This is Hirosima castle. It's not in the Peace Park. It's really cool to see the difference in style from the European castles...and yet there is still a moat...


The actual castle itself.


This is Hiroshima's version of Central Park. It's so beautiful! I saw flying fish and a crane here!






This is an ugly picture, but here is one of the five bazillion crabs that were everywhere in this park! One was the size of my hand and was sitting right in the middle of the path when I turned a corner. Scared me. For real.


A mini-rice paddy.






This last picture is obviously not in the park. We thought it was hilarious. It's a day care bus, and nothing like a naked baby with a mohawk stuck to the front of a huge orange van to tell people that this is a day care bus...

We headed home relatively early and ate the Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. SO good!