Bullet Trains
Today was our longest travel day, 378 miles total over three train trips. Traveling by train in Japan is super efficient and fast. The hardest part is navigating the train stations and knowing which platform to catch your specific train.
At the Osaka station we grabbed another traveling lunch to eat on the train. Laurie picked up the ever popular 7-11 egg salad sandwich. Matt tried a bento box that heated up the food after pulling a string on the side of the box.
Once in Hiroshima, we hopped in a local taxi to our hotel. The rooms in this hotel were the smallest of the trip so far.
Hiroshima Peace Museum
After dropping our bags, we made our way to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum. We visited the hypocenter (the spot where the bomb exploded 600 meters above the ground), the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (originally the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, and now commonly called the Genbaku Dome, Atomic Bomb Dome or A-Bomb Dome). The dome was one of the few recognizable buildings left standing after the bombing and is preserved as a remembrance of the bombing. As we made our way to the museum itself we stopped at many of the monuments in the park.
At the Paper Cranes and Children’s Peace Memorial, our guide presented the display she created from our origami paper cranes that we made back in Tsmogu. We placed our cranes into the display of other paper cranes left as part of the memorial. Finally, we visited the museum itself. The displays were focused on giving everyone an understanding of the effects of an atomic bomb. It was a very intense and saddening experience.
Okonomiyaki Dinner
Our dinner tonight was an okonomiyaki restaurant a short walk from the hotel. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese teppanyaki savory pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and other ingredients (mixed, or as toppings) and cooked on a teppan (flat griddle). Common additions include cabbage, meat, and seafood. Toppings include okonomiyaki sauce (made with Worcestershire sauce), aonori (dried seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger. While sitting at dinner, we were alerted to a tsunami warning in the northeast, we were in the southwest.
After dinner we stopped at Lawson, a convenience store similar to 7-11, for some ice cream. Since our rooms were so small and it was still early, we did not want to head back up to the room quite yet. We decided to join some of group for some nice saki in the hotel bar.
