Hiroshima!

inside the A-Bomb Dome... We went to The Peace Park…A-bomb dome and saw a parade. It was a heavy day (minus the parade) but well worth it. I couldn’t believe how unbiased the museum was… it spoke of the atrocities Japan inflicted on China and Korea as well as acknowledging their wrongdoings in WWII… they claim that by placing blame where its due as well as acknowledging your own faults, is the only way in moving forward and healing the wounds of the past. They are also revamping their textbooks in order to educate the younger generations in a truthful manner which doesn’t sugarcoat Japan’s past.
ringing the "Peace bell"

his monument stands in memory of all the children who dies as a result of the A-bomb. It was originally inspired by the death of Sadako Sasaki who was exposed to the radiation from the bomb at the age of 2. 10 years laters she developed leukemia that killed her. Her death compeeled her classmates to begin getting donation for the construction of a monument for all children who dies due to the atomic bomb.

Sadako thought that if she could fold 1,000 paper cranes that her life would be spared...unfortunately this did not come true...but people still fold paper 1,000s of cranes and put it here in her honor...It reads, "This is our cry. This is our prayer. For building peace in this world"
There were documents the bomb and its aftermath, complete with scale models of "before" and "after", melted children's tricycles and recreation of a Hiroshima street after the blast. The first floor describes the events leading up to the bomb and attempts to give a sense of what Hiroshima was like before the war. The second floor contains a number of displays and artifacts related to the day of the bombing. Some of these are extremely graphic and disturbing. There was a step from a building where just the shadow outline incinerated into the pavement is the only remaining trace of the person after the bomb exploded.

Letter from Albert Einstein to the President

There were also tons of letters back and forth within our government in English (so that we could sit there and read them even though the Japanese people couldn’t, which is probably a good thing) saying: 1. We should drop the Bomb on Japan instead of Germany because they are less likely to come back as strong. 2. Because of all the prior bombing, they were disappointed because then they wouldn’t be able to accurately measure the true potential destruction that the A-bomb would do. 3. When they dropped it on Japan, they should drop it in the water so that if there is a problem and it fails to go off then they wouldn’t be able to retrieve it to acquire the technology. 4. the American people were getting really pissed by this time because they had put in so much tax money into the research of the bomb and the war, they wanted to use the A-bomb to “give the people what they paid for” and shut them up basically that their money wasn’t going to waste. But then again, it IS all about MONEY… it was disgusting. I was really pissed though when I read a LETTER from Albert Einstein to the President. I don’t know about you, but when we were growing up, we learned that Albert Einstein was all about peace and didn’t invent the technology for bomb purposes...blah blah blah. “This new phenomenon would also lead to the construction of bombs and it is conceivable – though much less certain- that extremely powerful bombs of a new type may then be constructed. A single bomb, carried by boat and exploded in a port, might very well destroy the whole port together with some of the surrounding territory. However, such bombs might very well prove to be too heavy for the transportation by air.”

So 1 SECOND after the bomb went off the temp was 5,000degrees Celsius…people’s skin was literally melting off of their bodies.

The rest of the museum describes the post-war struggles of the hibakusha (bomb survivors) and the state of nuclear weapons in the world today.
This is the wall of “letter of protests” Every time a country test nuclear weapons, the mayor of Hiroshima writes a letter and it gets put on the wall in hopes that nuclear testing will be ended all together. There was an entire section written to the Bush administration as well as Korea…grouped together…Interesting eh?

Miyajima (宮島)

is a small island near Hiroshima, Japan. Famed for Itsukushima Shrine and its floating torii, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and officially one of Japan's Top 3 Views

Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社), Miyajima's main sight, the shrine is a large, red-lacquered complex of halls and pathways on stilts, originally so built that commoners could visit without defiling the island with their footprints.

The floating torii gate of the shrine, standing in the bay in front of the shrine, is Miyajima's best known symbol. But since we didn’t plan to get there at high tide the “floating” tori was merely mired in mud.

Saw the World's Largest Rice Spoon (well over 5m long), showcased along the main shopping street.

Cool looking guy waiting for his next customer.

Originally commoners were not allowed to step foot on the island for fear that they would spoil it. Now we know why…

May5
Universal Studios Japan where we waited in line for 2 hours (supposed to be 3) for Spiderman the ride…FUNNNNN times though..