HIroshima! Or rather, my lack of travels in Hiroshima

I arrived in Hiroshima yesterday afternoon, fairly early actually. I arrived at my hostel with no troubles at all, although because it was only 2 PM I had to wait an hour to check in. I really like this place, for several reasons; the main reason being that they do NOT have a curfew like my hostel in Kyoto did. I understand the reasoning behind the curfew, but its very limiting when you are in a city with a thriving night life. Ahem, anyhow.

This is my room, with my bed at the far end.




The last couple of days I have had a tickle in my throat. I was not successful at warding it off before it could get any worse, however, because I spent almost the entire day today inside resting. But I will come back to that in a moment. Yesterday, around 5 I decided to ask the receptionist where the nearest drug store was and which brand of cold medicine to get. He showed me on the map... It was fairly easy to get to, and only about a 15 minute walk. I didn't mind it so much because Hiroshima has been extremely cool compared to Kyoto's face-melting weather. It was such a nice change that I actually wore my jeans. So I got the medicine and came back to my hostel. Unfortunately, I could not yet take the medicine because I had to eat first... Well, darn it if I don't get hungry every couple of hours. I mean, I AM a living organism that requires a certain type of fuel to keep going. My fuel of choice that night was a Yakiniku restaurant with my Australian roommates. They did not speak ANY japanese. But lucky for them, I speak some. This is getting to be a pattern, don't you think? People are always surprised when I understand what they are saying, or some of what they are saying, and am able to respond with a somewhat comprehensible answer.

I just realized that I am boring you with useless details. Oh well, you'll have to live with it. =)

ANYHOW, after we got back I met the fourth roommate, a really cool chick from London. I ended up going out for a second dinner with her. We had a grand-old time at this awesome Okonomiyaki place. On the way there, a guy on a bicycle stopped to say hello to us. He then said, "you are beautiful!" so I thanked him. And then he said, "I love you!" and at that point the crosswalk had turned green so we high-tailed it out of there, giggling it up. Have I mentioned how much I love Japan?

As I mentioned briefly earlier, I ended up staying in most of today. Which really bummed me out because I so desperately wanted to go to Miyajima and see the "floating" gate, and, well, all of the other stuff on Miyajima island as well. But woe is me, for when I went outside to look for food, I could tell immediately that my body needed at least today to rest. Of course it picks the day I'm in Hiroshima... By the way, I thought of something horribly cheesy. The cold I have was picked up from a Swiss girl I was rooming with in Nagoya... So, I have acquired... *Drum Roll*

The SWISS FLU!!

I thought it was pretty clever, anyways.

I finally was feeling better around six, and so I left the hostel and headed over to Peace Park. Its close, and there's plenty of good eatin's nearby. So coming here wasn't a complete waste... I stood on very historical ground today. Well, I have done that a few times since I got here. Bah, you get me.

This statue really got to me... Being on the grounds conjured up these emotions. I think that I can't help but feel sorry about the atomic bombs... I mean, I know that I had nothing to do with it personally, but when you are standing in the very spot that it happened, well... I can't really describe it. Its just these feelings that I get.


This is the Atomic Bomb dome. I think its the only building left in Hiroshima that survived the bomb.



This is what it used to look like, and obviously what it looks like now...



In the album for this post, there are pictures of the english descriptions so you can read what I read and learned what I learned about Hiroshima, if you'd like. I'm not going to post it because I feel so incredibly exhausted... I think my body just needs to rest more. I still have so much ahead of me and I want to keep going. But I know that I shouldn't ignore my body. If I don't take care of myself, especially now, it will only get worse and I will miss out on even more.

Sorry for the feelings of ADD in this post... I'm tired and I wanted to give you guys at least SOMETHING... There will be more interesting things to post in a few days, so don't worry. But this particular post had to be written because I feel it is important that people know what happened. Sure, there's a lot of good history in Japan, but there is also a lot of painful history. I can't ignore this, especially since it is the doing of my own country. You have to take the good and the bad.

I really would love to come back here... There is so much I have to see still. But then, there is much I have yet to see in pretty much all of the cities I have been to here in Japan. So, here I shall end today's post.

Nicole