Land of the Rising Sun: Hiroshima.....August 6th, 1945...8:15am

This was a very important visit to me. No matter what you think about war, you think differently about nuclear war after visiting Hiroshima. We settled in Sansui Ryokan, which basically means "hostel" and met our host. She was very nice and made us laugh. She has a wall full of pictures of guests and asked us to take our picture for the wall...as she called it "Hiroshima memory". Sure enough by the end of our stay, we were on the wall. My traveling mates are good sports, since our room was down an alley that was no more than 36 INCHES wide....it was too funny. The room was about 20 meters from the office, which is where the shared shower resided :) It was quite an experience and really not that bad. It's all in how you look at it. We would go down for our shower, wait in the office till the other finished and get a chance to meet people from all over the world. We met a young couple, backpacking, one from Germany and the other from Mexico. The room was large, had a/c, kimonos, a bathroom, and was clean...so all was well. Anyway, we headed out to Peace Memorial Park, where the museum and the atomic bomb dome was located.. The park was beautiful. It almost felt a little strange, as Americans, coming to see Hiroshima, knowing my country was responsible for the damage and the pain, but it was something I felt like I had to do. Actually, our first few days in Tokyo we met a lady who spent 15 minutes helping us with a calling card and when I told her we were going to Hiroshima, she said she was really glad to hear that we were going there.

They don't lay blame.....they laid out information....they said it was something that happened. The information in the museum was presented very well, but you couldn't help but feel terrible....such horrific sadness. After the bombing they declared their city a "city of peace". They have been rallying for the end of nuclear proliferation ever since. Every where you look .... it's about PEACE.....world peace.

One building that was left standing is called the A bomb dome. Many countries joined together to save the A bomb dome to stand as an example of the force of the blast.

I bought the book "Hiroshima" by John Hersey in Barnes and Noble in Florida and would read excerpts each night out loud....we had a "read in"....since there was only Japanese television :) The book follows the accounts of five people that survived the bomb. It made the whole experience more personal.

On a lighter note, we found a great restaurant serving Hiroshima's famous okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is one of the most popular food in Japan, especially in western Japan. It is difficult to explain how it is. It looks something between a pizza and a pancake. But it tastes totally different. I cannot explain how it tastes but I can say it is cool. The basic ingredients are flour, yam, egg, cabbage, spring onion. On top of that, you can add anything you like. Usually most okonomiyaki restaurants have pork okonomiyaki and squid okonomiyaki..