Hiroshima

The building remaining after the atomic bomb in Peace Memorial Park
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Took my time getting up this morning; enjoying the fact that I didnt have to rush. I had decided to rent a bike and see as much of the city`s sights as I could during daylight hours. The staff here is excellent and they let you use their phone. I bought a phone card for about $10 dollars and called home for the first time. It was good to hear my Mom and Renee`s voice. Although the blog makes it much easier to stay in touch without dealing with phone cards. Its very complicated here! It'll be easier in Thailand when I can buy a simcard and use my own mobile.

The museum in the background; as you can imagine the park itself was quite nice
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My first stop was the Hiroshima Peace Park which has a museum and also one of the few buildings that wasn't totally obliterated by the atomic bomb. As you would imagine that museum was quite moving. They had recreated what people must have looked like with their skin dripping off. The Japanese had pulled middle school children out of the classroom and into work groups. They were outside dismantling buildings to make fire escape routes when the bomb exploded. There were many personal stories and individual affects like lunch boxes, finger nails, tattered clothes. I was thankful for the warm, comfortable sun as I did my best to appreciate the day after I left the museum including...

The radiation research center I found instead of a temple
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Getting lost. Again. Unfortunately, this time my misdirection lead to hauling my bike up long steep stairs. I thought I was heading to a temple, but ended up at a radiation research facility. I ended up holding my bike during the descent as it was too steep to ride down. I was very sweaty and doing my best to keep my cool emotionally.

Surprisingly, once I was down from the large hill, it didnt take too long to get my bearings. I headed to the area of the Hiroshima castle. This too had been totally smoldered from the bomb, but they have recreated the main tower and the moats were still entact. You can see the burn marks on the stones that have been left behind. The view from the tower was excellent as were the exhibits inside. It was a bit old, but they had a couple of fun videos that I appreciated.

My fancy fish lunch
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From there I attempted to head North to see more temple areas. When I arrived at an intersection I did not think I could cross with my bike, I scraped my ambitiously lengthy biking plans and headed for the city center. From there I rode and walked through the main shopping area. Stopped into a bookstore and picked a book written by a Japanese author who uses Tokyo as the setting for the novel. I'm hoping my fun train reading can educate me about the city I'll be spending my last four days.

The fancy dessert that came with the fancy fish lunch
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I was able to do laundry at the hostel and hang my clothes out on the rooftop to dry. I bought a small dinner from 7eleven and with a headlamp looked over my plans for the next on the roof. I was able to have a lovely lunch/very late breakfast at an outside cafe. Located in between a split river, the view was great and I was able to casually journal. It was a great way to enjoy the day, the food, and my time not working.

Tomorrow I'm hoping to check out `one of the top three sights` in Japan before crossing the country and heading north to Matsue. I've realized visiting smaller towns traveling by myself is much easier than the large cities. I feel very fortunate to have Tante Phia and Oom Peter to take me around Tokyo!