We got up early today, packed our backpacks and headed out to our Shinkansen train to Hiroshima (and quick 7-11 takeaway breakfast)

The train got us there in under two hours and we took a trolly car to what we learned was ground zero. We looked around the garden and a building that survived the blast.  And we bumped into Japanese 6th graders and their teacher who asked if they could give us a presentation they were working on.  It was adorable seeing the kids struggle pulling up slides and printouts.  It was a very touching presentation. And at the end they asked us “how can we make more peace”?  

I hope we can.  

I was struck by how focused this city is on peace and nuclear disarmament.  The people here don’t seem bent on vengeance, but rather sympathy for humanity.  They wouldn’t even want their enemies to go through what they went through.  

We went to the museum here and got the audio guide. Wow.  It was heartbreaking the stories that were told.  They didn’t hold anything back. I wish it were a prerequisite to all world leaders (especially those with nuclear capability) to visit this museum and hear those stories.  

The city has since recovered, but the pain will still linger.  

With this visit, we took the kids to see the beginning and the end of the pacific front of world war 2.  We’ve been to Pearl Harbor. And now Hiroshima. 

We were emotionally exhausted after the museum and went to lunch at momomo and we had those egg / noodles things that we had in Okinawa.  It was even better than the other place!

We then got on a board to go to Miyajima Island.

What a wonderful place! It was very hot out, but there were shops lined along the roads.  And a lovely water walkway.  There were the same deer as in Nara asking people for food and just walking along the street with us. 

We got some ice cream and walked to the Torii gate on the island.  It was low tide so people could walk all the way towards it.  The deer were eating the exposed sea grass. 

After a few selfies with the deer, we went to our hotel and our room was nuts!  A massage chair, an onsen overlooking the ocean / mountains. 

We even had dinner served in our room.  The boys had their own room and got to eat dinner themselves in the cafe. We ate the same food though! Amazing!  Oysters ograten and the Hiroshima beef were our favorites. 

We watched the sunset in our room as we ate dessert.  

Then they had a rooftop lookout so we checked that out, but there were so many moths and bugs we couldn’t stay up there.  

So we just snagged some free ice cream from the freezer and ate that in our room.  Favorite hotel so far!!