This rail pass has sped up my pace, not a huge fan of it but I’ll work that out soon. Hiroshima, the city known worldwide for a single event at 8:15am on August 6, 1945. I toured the peace park, less than 15 minute walk from my hostel, and ran into one of the hostel mates, Keiran, I met the night before. I neglected to get his info, I don’t want that to happen again for someone I had a good connection with.
The peace park is somber, hopeful, and humbling. I had learned about Hiroshima before, multiple times, but this was real. The museum is poignant, powerful, and weaves a very effective story about before the bomb, and the different stages of the effects of the bomb, as well as the continuance of the devastation. It’s a lot to take in, the most emotionally impactful piece was the clothes of some of the children lost, connected to their story. I have resolved to have a solidarity against nuclear weapons that was solidified during the visit. The pavilion does not inspire terror and dread, though it displays the horror and hell that was manifested. The whole city speaks for peace, it is built of and dwells in hope, speaking of love and resounding loudly for the world to hear. It was worth going to the city just for that.
I had breakfast in a tiny 6 seat restaurant with the Okonomiyaki meals cooked on the hot surface right in front of me by an elderly woman who served amazingly. She had a handwritten letter from the current japanese prime minister ( Fumio Kishida who happened to be on the TV on the wall at the time) from when he visited with 7 body guards. I highly recommend this little hole in the wall for anyone else who visits – Name is Hiyori.