Quarter Break in Hiroshima

At APU the school year is separated in both semesters and quarters, quarters marking the middle of a semester. After discussing different destinations, among them Okinawa (scrapped for multiple reasons) Shannon (US) and I finally decided to spend 4 days of our first Quarter Break in Hiroshima.


Hiroshima, Day 1: November 20^th

Departure Beppu at 10:50 on a Sonic train to Kokura, change at Kokura at 12:15 to Shinkansen (the Japanese Bullet Train) between Kokura and Hiroshima (arrival Hiroshima 13:10). The train ride from Beppu to Kokura was the most interesting part; it took us through various kinds of Japanese landscape. The car we sat in was sparingly but tastefully furnished, with comfortable seats in a deep green, and occasionally a snack-trolley would be pushed past us by a uniformed woman. We drove through tunnels and valleys crowned with green hills, past tiny villages and remote farmlands, through vast farm fields and finally cities before we came to Kokura. Finding the Shinkansen platform was quite easy once we saw the big signs clearly displaying "Shinkansen" and a big arrow to indicate the direction. The Shinkansen wasn't that exciting; it was (logically enough) mostly tunnels. The interesting parts on board the Shinkansen were the obvious difference between us and the travelling businessmen, and to feel the speed of the train even underground.

When we arrived in Hiroshima we took streetcar (tram) 2 or 6 from Hiroshima Station to Dobashi; the tram stop closest to our hostel J-Hoppers Hiroshima, app. 20 min. The J-Hoppers was really nice, nothing fancy but clean and comfortable. We had reservations in Japanese style (with futons and tatami mats) shared rooms. The area around Dobashi seemed a little run-down, some closed down shops, restaurants and dirty houses, but otherwise OK. We got to our room, stashed our things and went to explore Hiroshima and find somewhere to eat. We jumped on board the first tram that came without reading its signs and getting “lost” on the tram lines we ended up at Hiroshima’s Yokogawa station. After exploring the area around Yokogawa station we took the tram to the Kamiyacho and Hatchobori area where we found an underground shopping area/mall. We ate, explored and shopped a little before we returned to the hostel around 19:00, chatted and exchanged stories and misc. info with our roommates (Anna from Sydney and Putney? from Virginia) until bedtime.

Our delicious breakfast.

Day 2: November 21^st
Breakfast later than planned (hostel dorm damn comfy), found a nice breakfast café right by the Dobashi tram stop. They had perfect toast and wonderful coffee. After breakfast we went to the A-dome and the Peace Park. The A-dome and Peace Park is a peaceful bubble in the very heart of Hiroshima, right in the busiest stretch of the city. In the Peace Park there is a collection of memorials, most noteworthy the Peace Bell, the Paper Crane Memorial and the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (HPMM). Shannon and I wandered around the Dome and the memorials in the park until we met up with Maki around 13:00. After putting Maki’s luggage in the hostel we went to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum(s).

The A-dome, and the A-dome before and after.

1) The Paper Crane Memorial, in memory of the children that died because of the bomb.
2) Thousands of paper cranes are donated to the memorial by school classes from all over Japan.
Each school class visiting this memorial hold a small ceremony where they sing, read aloud text or letters, or just keep 1 minute silence in front of the statue, and then present their paper cranes to the memorial.

A wonderful piece of architecture and architectural planning; from the Peace Memorial in front of the HPMM there's a straight line to the Peace Flame and then to the A-dome in the far background; crowned and emphasized by the arch of the Peace Memorial.

In the HPMM Maki asked med “Do you like the museum?” That’s a difficult question to answer.

The museum is great. It is a magnificent compilation of educational info and historical recollections, facts of actions and their consequences and so on. But I didn’t enjoy being there. Just seeing the Dome was touching, and watching the visiting school classes pay their respect, to the children that died prematurely due to radiation, in front of the Paper Crane Memorial Statue was emotional. Inside the museum I got more and more depressed and uncomfortable as the exhibition progressed to the effects of the bomb. But getting depressed after seeing that is a good sign I believe. People should be depressed after seeing that. It’s a good thing that this issue remains this emotionally effective on us, even from two generations and half a world away. A second (and newer) museum focused on the survivor’s stories from when they fled from the post-bomb inferno to safety. It didn’t help my depressions. I hope future generations will keep these memorials in regard and work to destroy the atomic bombs to never be used again. No one should have to live through the nightmares these people did 52 years ago. To continue using nuclear weapons, especially after seeing the effects of the first ones, is an unforgivable abomination.

After eating Hiroshima-yaki (a form of Okonomiyaki – also explained as a kind of Japanese “pancake”) for dinner we shopped again (managing to lose (and find!) my wallet twice) before returning to the hostel. Shared room with Ingrid from Canada.

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I was halfway through this text when I realized it was in English, so I decided to just keep it that way.

I'll post pictures when I'm able to steal bandwidth enough to post them... and Hiroshima part 2 comes when I have bandwidth to post it with pictures.