After spending here two long weeks with no sign of the weather getting better anytime soon, I decided that it was the time to leave my room to explore.
So one lovely evening, I went out for a walk… a regretted it immediately because I don’t know if I’m that sweet or what, but the mosquitoes and other insects here LOVE me. But I was determined to reach my goal and take pretty pictures of the nearby river. (I must say I was quite confused with the water level though, because whenever I looked at it, it was different – then I figured out that it was because of the tides, since Hiroshima is basically located in the delta on multiple river islands.) And I must say, the pictures were nice, but were they really worth the mosquito bites? Debatable.
Having learnt my lesson, I decided to go out during the day, despite the fact that the second I step out, I start sweating like crazy. Lovely, lovely Japanese humid heat. ♥ This time I was not alone, but with a Japanese student who kindly took me to the nearest okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki is a flour-based pancake topped with loooots of cabbage and sprouts, an egg with amazing sauce. In the Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (because there’s an Osaka-style too), you can also put noodles as another layer, which I didn’t do (this time), as it seemed quite filling anyway. And it was. I still get surprised at the price of restaurant food, with this one costing me 760¥, approximately 5,30€.
Another one of my adventures was when I forgot about the evening rule. After a busy day full of paperwork and study, I took a stroll down to the Peace Memorial Park and A-Bomb Dome. It is here that on 6th August 1945 the bomb was dropped and exploded. Interestingly, it exploded up in the air, above a building (the Dome – designed by a Czech architect) that stand to this day as a reminder of the event. I’d like to know how Japanese people feel about it all. When asking my friend, she said that people have different opinions and that her personal view is not thinking about it. I mean, fair enough.
The Peace Memorial Park is also an important place (I ended up going there on two consecutive days, great planning on my side) and I saw primary school pupils in their uniforms. I was told that many primary schools, predominantly from Tokyo, go on a field trip here for a couple of days. They visit the tragedy-related places, Miyajima Island (where I’m planning of going too at some point!) and perhaps the Hiroshima castle.
I must say that despite being rebuilt after the bomb hit, it was still quite magnificent. Possibly because it was the first Japanese, or even Asian, castle I saw with my own eyes. There’s a water moat around it which originally served as a protection but nowadays there are many koi fish chilling in there. The area is quite large too, with gardens, a shrine and, finally, the castle itself. The entrance to the area is free for everyone, but if you want to see the inside of the castle tower, it’ll cost you about 400¥. Luckily, I was nicely surprised by the fact that as a Hiroshima student with a student card, I have free entrance here as well. Love that for me.
The tower, as they call it for some reason even though I’d just call it the castle, is five floors tall with each floor displaying different exhibition, including the history of the castle or the armours and weapons all with English translations. On the top floor you can enjoy the 360° views, but frankly, I am not in love with the architecture in Hiroshima. I understand everything had to be rebuilt for obvious reasons, but I’m not really into that 70s-80s vibe. But I did love the castle and the shrine and basically anything traditionally- or naturally- (by that I mean parks and green areas) looking.
Not to say that there’s not enough to see here. I still have a lot to discover, which is great, since I love playing the tourist (which I actually really am). So the next stop – Hiroshima Museum of Art!
