Hiroshima

Last weekend was the CIEE Hiroshima trip. I have to admit I felt a little weird being in Hiroshima, but ill get to that. Here is one weekend breakdown.

We took the Shinconsen from Tokyo to Hiroshima. It was a four hour train ride that had allot of leg room. However I kind of preferred the bus. The bus had allot more room, it went slow enough for you to see the sights, and it stopped every few hours or so. The Shinconsen is pressurized so it feels like an airplane. However you most certainly don't book it like you do on the Shinconsen. I don't think I've ever been on a faster land vehicle.

It was evening when we arrived and we checked into the hotel. Man I liked that hotel. Single rooms, comfy bed, internet conception, working shower. Small but cozy. The next day we split into groups and went to a mountain on an island. I forget the name but it is sacred island to the Japanese. There are these dear, which are also sacred, that aren't afraid of people and just roam the streets. They eat anything and one took a bite out of my map. It was sticking out of my pocket and, BAM; deer took a bite out of it. I had to shoo him away with my beeping camera.

Later we took a couple of cable cars to the top of the mountain, and then I climbed to the peak. Then I climbed around and saw every single shrine up there. There was a fire that was lit by a priest over 1200 years ago and is still burning today. I however should not have climbed around for so long because I was supposed to meet up at the dock at four o'clock. Oh well at least there was a 4:30 ferry. After that we checked into a traditional ryokan which had a spacious interior and a wonderful view, even though it was a view of the A-bomb dome. For dinner we had traditional Ochonomiaki which is an egg, meet, noodle, pastry dish served on a heated table and slathered in a kind of bbq sauce. It was scrumdidlyumptious and I hope to have it again.

There was a festival in Hiroshima, but it was packed to the point of not being able to move so we decided to go to a foreign food store, grab some beef jerky and A&W root beer and head back to the room. We watched some south park that somebody had on his computer then hit the sack.

The next morning I took a shower in the most confusing shower to date, which is saying something because the showers in Japan are exceedingly complicated, and then had a great breakfast. Then we gathered in groups again and headed to the peace memorial park.

Being an American in Hiroshima comes with it a certain degree of guilt. Yesterday we discussed why the bomb was dropped and if it was justified. Generally it was considered that the bomb was going to be dropped, whether it was justified or not. The Japanese seem to have come to terms, somewhat, with the past. If you ask a Japanese person what they think of the incident, they tend to blame their superiors for the atrocity over America. They say that Japan was the aggressor in the war and if they had had the bomb they would have used it too. But still there is great emotion still about Hiroshima, more so among the old than the young, that is not shown to Americans and I can' help feeling a little awkward.

Anyway we saw the memorial grounds, which was a nice park close to the hypo-center of the blast. We saw the mass grave for those that were never found or were never identified. The A-bomb dome which is one of the few buildings that survived the blast. The ever burning flame that is supposed to be extinguished when all the nuclear weapons are purged from the world. I have to admit I teared up a few times. In Japan there is a strong focus on the personal narrative of those involved in the blast. The effects of it were far reaching and truly terrible. It may have been necessary, but we should never do it again.

We listened to an American professor who gave us a spiel about the current state of nuclear weapons in the world and the view of the atomic age from the American and Japanese perspectives. Then we had a nice Obento lunch and came back and listened to a survivor tell us her story of the blast. She spoke in English, but she had trouble with it. It was an undeniably sad story, but I won't go into it here. I video taped most of it, so I can show you if you know me personally. We were given time afterward to reflect and cool down.

Then we went to Hiroshima castle where we ate Ice cream and I did the entire tour in about 3min because that's all the time we had left. I ran back down and we grabbed the next trolley to the train station and caught the Shinconsen home. That was my trip to Hiroshima.