6/10 A Tour of Hiroshima and Traveling to Miyajima

Hey guys! 

So I'm currently writing this in probably the best hotel I've ever stayed at in Miyajima. It's done in a traditional Japanese style, with tatami mats and a low table that you have sit on these small cushions for. I'll post some pictures of it towards the end.

Before getting to Miyajima, we had a tour that began at 9 a.m. of Hiroshima. This tour was really something. We had a volunteer tour guide who took us to a bunch of different memorials throughout this park in the middle of Hiroshima. All of the memorials were beautiful. Here are some shots of them - 

One of the peace memorials at the park. It gives a really pretty view to the main peace memorial, as you can see through the arc. 

This memorial honors the children who died from the A-bomb. On top is Sadako, the girl who tried to fold 1,000 paper cranes to try and be cured from the after effects of the bomb. Around the memorial are displays showing various artwork created from paper cranes.

This is a burial mound. There are over 70,000 cremated remains of victims from the A-bomb.

Here's another shot of the main peace memorial. 

Afterwards we headed to the museum that's right across the peace memorial park. This museum was intense. I lasted about halfway through before having to walk away because it was too much for me. At first you see a huge simulation of the A-bomb being dropped on Hiroshima. It showed the radius of everything it destroyed. You then went through an informational hall that explained the U.S. process of creating the bomb to the after effects of it. At first, it was really interesting seeing things from a different perspective. But then we got to the part were the museum shows the burns that the A-bomb made on children. One of the T.V.'s on the wall actually showed a baby being inspected after the bomb, and then later children that lost their hair due to the radiation. That's what got to me. I couldn't concentrate anymore and had to straight up walk away. I managed to get a hold of myself until the next floor down. This floor had artifacts - clothes and trinkets that survived the bomb. The clothes that were on display were clearly torn up and had blood stains on them. I had to walk away again. 

I didn't get many pictures of this museum, mainly because I felt that if I made even the slightest noise then I'm being disrespectful. I did, however, get pictures of the paper cranes that Obama made during his visit to Hiroshima. Side observation - Obama is extremely respected here. In the shopping plaza outside of memorial park, they actually have a gacha machine that openly made fun of Trump and had a mega-man robot superhero with Obama's face on it right next to the machine. 

A paper crane and Obama's letter to Hiroshima. He made four in total, but two were shipped back to the U.S. 

The 2nd paper crane Obama created

Obama's megatron

Finally after this museum, we went out for some okonomiyaki. This made me feel a lot better. The food of course was amazing, and this was one of the few meals that were covered by NAU so the students took full advantage of that. 

This guy was really cool and let me take a picture of him in the middle of him making all the okonomiyaki. They make the food right in front of everyone. 

Finally, we headed for Miyajima. This is probably the most tourist-y place we've been to so far. There were Westerners everywhere! It's touristy for good reason though - the island is beautiful. Me and some friends went out to take pictures after dinner, and here are some of the shots I got. Which, by the way, I've figured out how to use the timer on the camera so I can now take better nighttime shots! (Oh yeah a side note for my dad - I did not forget the mini tripod!! 😁😁)

Courtney using the chabudai that's in our hotel room. 

Here's a group shot of us on the short ferry ride to Miyajima island. The island is only 10 minutes away from Hiroshima! 

So the deer are kind of everywhere and they really don't care about people. Sometimes they'll get uncomfortable if you get a little to upfront towards them, but if they're hungry they'll become super upfront to you. 

And that was basically my day today! A lot of up and down emotions. I have to be up and ready by 8:30 tomorrow morning, so I'll be heading off to sleep now. おやすみ！