Hiroshima

After five nights in Osaka and doing day trips to Kyoto it was time to move onto our next destination in Japan.  I felt quite sad as we were walking to the train station in Osaka because we loved staying there, loved our accommodation and it was our first experience of Japan, but we were also ready for new adventures. 

I really wanted to go to Hiroshima while we were in Japan.  I'd had cousins and friends who had been to Japan who recommended it and said it was worth the trip there.  Although we think we know about the atomic bombing and the effects of it, I knew that it would mean so much more by actually going there. Kobe was a bit worried about going as he said he didn't want to go somewhere sad, but I felt like it was really important that we went and hoped that it would be a 'good' sad as we could learn more about the effects of war and see how far things have come since the bombing.

It was time to catch our first Shinkansen (bullet train) and I had read about how to book tickets in advance, but I also knew you could just go to the station and could book tickets on the day as there are so many trains running all the time. I didn't know exactly what time we would be leaving, and I didn't want to be stressing if we were running late to catch the train.  

Instead, we just turned up to the station and went to the information desk and bought tickets when we arrived there. They have people at the desk who speak English and signs for the English speakers, which was great as it took away a lot of the stress about which tickets to get.  We ended up getting reserved seats to make sure that we could all sit together.  

I was able to tick two things off my bucket list items at once - going on the bullet train and getting a shinkansen bento box to eat on the train. You aren't usually allowed to eat on the regular trains in Japan, but it is very common for people to buy bento boxes at the train station and to eat them on the shinkansen because the trips are longer. You can even buy self-heating bento boxes where you have to pull a string through the bottom, and the box start heating up. 

There were lots of different options of bento boxes, but I decided on the Shin Osaka station limited Bento. 

I wasn't sure what half of what I was eating was, but it was all so delicious. 

                                          

The bullet train was so fast and smooth and before we knew it, we were in Hiroshima. 

                                          

We could've squeezed Hiroshima into a day trip from Osaka, but I also wanted to go to Miyajima Island and didn't want to be rushing too much, so I decided to stay two nights.  It was only an hour and a half on the Shinkansen from Osaka. Once we arrived in Hiroshima, we then had to catch a bus to our accommodation which was right across the road from the Peace Park.   That was a bit stressful because we all had a large suitcase each and we had to squeeze onto a busy bus with our luggage, but it was only a short trip across the city. 

With every place that I booked to stay at, I made sure there was a konbini (convenience store) very close by so that we could easily grab food for breakfast or even lunch or dinner if we needed to. Our accommodation is the tall building across the road from Lawson. 

Our accommodation was very basic, but it was so much cheaper than Osaka.  We each had our own bed, and they were very comfortable, so we were happy enough especially since I knew we wouldn't be spending a lot of time there. We loved watching Japanese TV even though we didn't understand any of it. We laughed when sumo wrestling was on. 

We dropped our luggage off to our accommodation and headed straight to the Peace Park Museum.  I had heard from someone that you get a lot more out of the museum if you pay extra and hire the headphones so that you have the audio tour as you go around. I'm so glad that we did as I felt like I learnt so much more as I was able to press a number at each section I was at, and it would give you information in English. 

The museum starts off showing what Hiroshima was like before the bombing, then when the bomb happened and the effects of the atomic bomb. 

The photo below was the only photo taken on the day of the bombing. The audio said that the photographer almost couldn't take it, because it was too hard to see the suffering of the children. 

The story of the boy and his tricycle made me cry.  The audio had his father's voice telling the story of how he buried his son with his tricycle and helmet so that he could ride it in heaven, because he couldn't bear for him to be cremated.  His body and the tricycle were later dug up and he was reburied, and the tricycle and helmet were donated to the museum. 

                               
As you walk to the second part of the museum you can see the Atomic Bomb Dome and Peace Park from the windows. 

The second part of the museum talks about war, the atomic bombs that were dropped on Japan and nuclear weapons. 

We spent a couple of hours in the museum and then walked around the Peace Park. 

Next to the Atomic Bomb Dome is Orizuru Tower which has a lookout at the top, where you can see the city and Peace Park from above. 

We decided to go up to the top of the tower, but I almost decided not to when I saw the price. It was 'only' $22 Aus each to go up but that felt like a lot when most things that we had done so far were free or about $5 to get in and Disneyland tickets were only about $80-$90.   I decided that we were probably only going to be in Hiroshima once in our lifetime, so we paid and went up to the top. 

They say that Hiroshima isn't radioactive but there was a lot of smog haze when we were there.

From one side you can see the Atomic Bomb Dome and from the other side you can see the city and the 

Hiroshima Castle in the background.  

                                         

Harri spotted a brand-new sports stadium from the lookout and later decided to go and have a look and was actually able to walk right into the grounds and look around. 

Inside the tower we each were given a piece of paper to make an origami crane, and we got to build up stamps on it, to make a picture. 

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Once you've stamped your paper you then go to a table where you get instructions from an iPad about how to make a crane. Even with the instructions were terrible at it, so some of the lovely workers came over to help us. 

The boys joked that we were supposed to be feeling peaceful in the Peace Park, but we were feeling very stressed after making the origami cranes. 

When you finish making the cranes you are able to then drop them down into the 13-story glass wall, and all the cranes that have been made from people from all around the world start filling up the wall to represent world peace.  Once they get to a certain level (I think the worker who took our photo said the tenth story) then they empty them out and start again. 

It was a lovely way to end off our day at the Peace Park and the museum. 

You can see the cranes here filling up the glass wall. 

There was an option of taking a slide back down to the bottom but as they got me to sign a form to say that they wouldn't take any responsibility for injuries I started to freak out and decided to just take the lift instead. I started imagining the rest of my Japan trip in hospital using my travel insurance for a broken leg! I knew I was probably stressing about nothing, but I enjoyed watching Jay and Kobe down the slide instead. It wasn't as extreme as we first thought, as it actually stopped at every floor.  Harri also gave it a miss because of his sore leg. 

On our first night in Hiroshima we walked from our accommodation, through the Peace Park to go to dinner.  

Osaka is well known for takoyaki (ball shaped dough that is filled with octopus) and Hiroshima is known for its Hiroshima style okonomiyaki which is different to okonomiyaki that you can get in other parts of Japan. It's a type of savoury pancake dish and the okonomiyaki in Hiroshima includes noodles and they cook it a little differently to other areas.  

We had passed this shop earlier in the day and by the line up outside, it looked very popular, so Jay, Kobe and I went and lined up and waited to get a seat. Harri can be a bit fussier than we are with food, and wasn't feeling great, so he wanted to get something to eat quickly and go back to rest. 

We waited about fifteen minutes for a table and were hoping for a table right on the bar where they were making the okonomiyaki, but they said we would get in quicker if we got a booth instead. We were lucky that our booth was up near the bar, so we could still watch them making it.  This was the first time we had ever noticed someone say the phrase 'irasshaimase' which they yelled at us when we walked in. At first, I was shocked as I had no idea what just happened, but every time that someone new walked into the restaurant every single worked would yell 'irasshaimase' which means 'welcome'.  It made me laugh every time. 

They cooked it at the bar but then brought it over to our booth where we had our own hot plate where we could dish it up from. Kobe wasn't sure if he would like it, so he didn't order a whole one for himself, but shared some of ours. He ended up really liking it and probably should've got one for himself. 

Instead, he wanted to go to Maccas and get some food afterwards, which we always found fun anyway as they have such different things on the menu to home. 

                                 
We would stop at the konbinis every night on the way back to our accommodation to get new snacks to try. 

We still can't believe how cheap the food is compared to home. This Pepsi costs about $1.20 Aus where at home we'd be paying $4.50.  We found it very easy to convert the Aus dollar to Yen because our dollar was almost equal while we were there. 

Kobe loves gummy bears, so he was excited to find this at the 7 Eleven that night as we don't have Nintendo themed ones at home. 

The next morning Kobe, Jay and I went for a quick walk to look at Hiroshima Castle. It always amazes me that you can be in the middle of a city, and suddenly there is an incredible castle in the middle of it. 

There were some very pretty vending machines in Hiroshima. 

On our second day in Hiroshima, we caught a ferry and spent the day at Miyajima Island which I'll do a separate post about. It was one of our favourite days of the whole trip. 

On our second night in Hiroshima the boys decided they wanted to try Ichiran with me after I told them about when I had it in Osaka. It was so fun all going together and sitting in separate booths. 

Harri isn't very good at using chopsticks and we saw these wooden tags on the side of each booth with pictures on them.  If you need a server to come you press the call button and pass them one of these tags. We assumed the picture with the cutlery meant you wanted a fork and spoon. We didn't see the part that said 'see back for English' until after we handed the server the tag. 

They passed him a child's fork and bowl through to his booth.  

Then we realised what it said on the back and couldn't stop laughing! 

We thought it was very cute and clever that they had instructions of how to make the paper that held the chopsticks into origami. 

I am so glad that we went to Hiroshima, but I think it's a place that you only really need to visit once. I think it was a very important place to visit with the boys, but there's not a lot to do there other than to visit the Peace Park and museum and Miyajima Island, so I know that when we go back to Japan it wouldn't be somewhere we would go again. 

I found it had such a different feel to Osaka.  In Osaka the people are very loud, outgoing and friendly, and a lot of people in Osaka speak a little bit of English.  In Hiroshima we found that although the people were still friendly, they were a lot more reserved and not many people speak English (not that it's a problem - we just noticed the difference there). 

I think that anyone who visits Japan should go to Hiroshima at least once.