Hiroshima

Hello All.

We just got back from our last trip before we head home. After spending a mere 52,500 yen we were able to travel to Hiroshima- oh how we will miss spendy train rides. We, again, for your sake narrowed down the 200 plus shots to a few that summarize our time in Hiroshima and Miyajima.

Hiroshima's regional dish is hiroshima-yaki- egg based pancakes made with soba, cabbage and a fried egg. I added prawns to mine and Jake was brave enough to add squid to his.









Yes, that's right, we came all the way to Hiroshima and then spent an evening in an arcade. We had too fun of a time playing Super Mario Brothers, Mario Kart and Air Hockey (we were sore the next day).














A-Bomb Dome at night.




A few months ago when we were in Nara, Jake had the opportunity to pose with a deer. He took the opportunity, but to his heart's regret did not put his arm all the way over the deer's shoulder like he had always dreamed of doing. As you can see, his dream finally came true with a deer in Miyajima. I had no such dream.
*A few hours later a deer tried to eat Jake's shirt...








Floating Torri Gate in Miyajima.










Masked Performer with chanting- we're not sure what exactly was going on.










This was the beginning of our hike up Mt. Misen. It started off with a gentle slope and then went straight up. The Japanese must not be fans of switchbacks.







Not only was a beautiful view waiting for us at the top, but also an old man selling ridiculously priced soda and chocolate bars. We definitely went for the chocolate.






On our way down, we crossed paths with a troop of wild monkeys (Google informed us that groups of monkeys are troops?). We were within an arm's reach of 20-30 monkeys! It was quite a remarkable experience.





We were rewarded with another beautiful view at the end of our 5 hour hike.




A mass grave for many of the atomic bomb victims.








Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall for the Atomic Bomb Victims. This is the Hall of Remembrance. The wall is a panorama of the bombed city as seen from the hypocenter. It is made up of 140,000 tiles, the number of people estimated to have died by the end of 1945.


We also visited the Children's Peace Memorial where among many other cranes and messages we found a poster sent in from a class in Newberg, Oregon. The Peace Memorial Museum was a very moving experience for both of us. The museum narrates the events preceding, during and after the bombing. What really got to us were the pictures and singed articles of clothing left behind from school children who were killed.