Out side of Japan, Hiroshima may be mostly known for its involvement with the atomic bomb. I’ll admit, even being an enthusiast of japanese culture, this is what I thought as well. But, that mind set has certainly change.
I’ll first get the heavy stuff out of the way. That is, our walk through the Atomic Bomb Memorial. We had left Nara pretty early in hopes to get to the hotel, drop off our stuff, and get to the memorial before it closed. We made it with plenty of to spare, which was good because it was a lot to go through.
I won’t get into the political and moral debate, nor do I plan to. From the moment you enter the memorial, 
there isn’t a feeling of taking sides or placing blame. It is about what happened in Hiroshima and to the people living there at the time of and after the bomb was dropped. There were pictures taken minutes after the bomb exploded 500 meters above the ground from various viewpoints of the city. There are also lots of pictures of people and houses/buildings (or lack thereof) from the aftermath on display, as well as articles of clothing, various utensils, housewares, and a multitude of other things that were collected from various points within the blast radius.
For those interested, the following is a quick science lesson, which was also provided at the memorial, about the atomic bomb(s). The explosion was a nuclear fission reaction which involves a specific mass of material is shot at a larger mass of uranium (or plutonium). This then splis into an unstable mass and continues to split it’s self apart, down to an atomic level. These splits create an enormous amount of energy as well as some byproducts of radiation (specifically alpha, beta, gamma, and neutron). While there is plenty of more detail to go into, the main points are that there was a large amount of energy, equivalent to 20 kilotons of TNT (which is still way too big for me to even comprehend), and gamma/neutron radiation resulting from the blast.
When the bomb exploded, everything very very close was completely or nearly vaporized by the blast energy, and everything further out, but still within a certain range, experienced either extreme heat or extremely high
dosages of the worse kind of radiation. The aftermath of the bomb was just unbelievably devastating. Aside from immediate destruction of the landscape, the heat and radiation would claim over 140,000 lives from the instant of the blast, only days after, all the way up to years after the event (due to latency of various cancer). I will spare any more details, as there is so much more informative sources. One 
of he last things we saw was a recent event, in which US President Barack Obama had visited Hiroshima and wrote a letter of peace to add to the memoria,s collection, advocating peace and nuclear disarmament. This was also the first time since the atomic bomb was dropped that an America president had visited Hiroshima.
We then decided to surpress our sorrow and sadness with some food (I’ve heard that usually works), so we went to a 3-story restraunt that serves local Okonomiyaki お好み焼き. It’s been described in different ways: 
Japanese pizza, Japanese pancake, Japanese omelet/noodle sandwich. Regardless of how it’s described, this Japanese noodle-sandwich-pizza-omlete was delicious! It’s made on a large griddle where patrons sit around the edge surrounding the chef (kind of like the setup for hibachi) and once it’s made, it’s placed on the section of the griddle in front of you to keep it warm while you eat.
Throughout dinner, we attempted to slide some Japanese into our conversation while the chefs were nearby. They must have appreciated it because they ended up asking about ourselves and while our Japanese wasn’t perfect (we said many times ‘mou ichido kudasai’/’can you repeat please?’) we all shared a good laugh. It definitely brought our spirits back up and made for a good end to the day.
Day two in Hiroshima involved an early morning boat to an island called Miyajima 宮島. It was unofficially 
labeled one of the three most scenic spots in Japan by a Confusian scholar named Shunsai Hayashi in the 1600s and 14% of its land is designated as World Heritage area.
On that 14% lies tons of temples and shrine, specifically the Itsukushima Shrine 厳島神社. This Shinden style shrine was built in 593 AD to provide dedication to three Munakata goddesses, all deities of the sea, traffic safety (nautical traffic), fortune, and accomplishment. This temple was pretty large in a lateral sense (not particularly tall) but its uniqueness was the water it was built over. Standing on pilings, the temple hovered over a shallow bay like area, and during the day the tide would reveal different structures
laying along the sand, like steps and circular wells (best I can do for a discription; apologies). Looking outwards towards the sea from this temple, a large cedar torii called Otorii 大鳥居 ( 大 means big, 鳥居 is a Shinto archway ) stands out of the water 16.6 meters and weighs 60 tons. You can walk out to it once the tide goes out, which we did later in the day (along with every other tourist and their mothers…literally).
We then worked our way up the mountain, however, unlike our last few mountain hikes, this one was a bit 
easier. There are hiking trails available, but they also have ropeways (cable cars, gondolas, insert any other names for suspended box on a cable here) to bring you to a 430 meter visitor station. From there it was only another 100 meters to the peak, but because it was a very windy and shallow path, so the ascent took about an hour. The summit was definitely a sight to behold and provided a nice break from the sun.
The hike down was much smoother. We even made a small detour to the Miyamajinja shrine 御山神社 (that Kanji was super difficult to find), passing some large killer hornets on the way. It ended up being closed, but in hindsight, the detour put us at perfect timing to reach Kiezu-no-Reikado Hall (not figuring out the Kanji for 
that). This is were the original “eternal flame” burns and has been burning for 1200 years! Entering the hall is difficult at first. Many people pay respects by burning incense, and with the already burning fire in the middle of the building (which is only 3 meters by 3 meters), smoke engulfs you, stinging the eyes and lungs. But pushing through was entirely worth it because as I said, time was on our side. Right above the fire is a large, cast iron pot. You may imagine, like we did, that the pot was for display purposes only and s off limits to touch. To our disbelief, two women reached over to remove the lid, then proceeded to dip a large spoon into it to pull out some water. “Whoa! That’s cool! They are going to through it in the fire or something for prayer or respect….why are they puttng it in a cup?!” As we watched, they turned to us, asked if we wanted some and so became one of the coolest moments of the trip. Sitting in a smoke filled room next to two older women, drinking sacred water, boiled over a 1200 year old flame. Every sip seemed to cool us down some how and forget that there was even smoke in the room. It was relaxing, surreal, and peaceful. All the noises from outside disappeared and the moment itself felt like it was lasting an eternity. Unfortunately we were to zoned out to remember take any pictures, but even if we did, it wouldn’t have felt quite right.
After that, we finished the hike and ropeway backback down to get some food and then catch the ferry. Ignoring the touristy feel to Miyajima is tough, but once we did, we realized how well worth the visit was.
Bonus – there was a lot of deer here as well and I like deer, so hear are more deer pictures.
Getting back to the hotel, we noticed on the back wall a few moments layed out on a table. It turned out to be photos of some pretry important people, one of which being John Kerry. The hotel had recently held the G7 summit. Guess or hotel was much more important than we originally thought (aside from it being very nice).
with a bus ride from the top of Haguro
wpoint, but for whatever reason, the stone steps seemed to have crumbled over the few hundred years, leaving behind a steep, pebble slope, with a very few well defined stepping points. Our hiking poles did most of the work here, and luckily it only lasted an hour or so. The trek from then on was similar to heading up to Gassan – some uphill, some downhill, more snow trekking, and nice shrubbery. It wasn’t until the last split from the main trail (there were many routes to other locations) that we again 
encountered majestic sights and precarious situations. The first of these was a metal ladder. I think most of us can says we have climbed a ladder at some point in our lives, and that there was not much to it. Now add a 30 pound backpack, hiking poles in one hand, half inch diamond rungs (pointy side up), and 5 hours of 
exhaustion. And did I say ladder? I meant ladders. Four, 20 to 30 feet long, nearly 90 degree ladders, taking a pain-staking 30 minutes to climb down. Needless to say, I think we are now ready for American Ninja Warrior.
stranded in the middle of nowhere, they offered to give us a ride back to the train station. The end of the day, and one of the most memberable ones, was cruising down the left side of a highway, listening and communicating with three suprisingly young looking (they were in there 60s looking 40s), with Stevie Wonder’s Ebony and Ivory playing in the background.
