Hiroshima

So, Sasha and I did make it to Hiroshima. I was a little concerned about getting the train tickets, but it turned out not to be a problem. I got on the train at Kochi Station, Sasha boarded at Oosugi, and we made a successful transfer to the Shinkansen at Okayama. We got some dinner at the McDonald's in Hiroshima Station, where I was promptly hit on by a seemingly drunken businessman. That was entertaining. After catching a taxi to our hostel, we were quick to go to bed.

Friday was spent visiting the A-bomb memorial sites. There is the atomic bomb dome (what little remains of a famous building following the bombing), the peace park, the children's memorial (thousands of origami cranes displayed in glass cases), the cenotaph, and the peace museum. There was a lot to see. At the atomic bomb dome, there were students collecting signatures for a petition against atomic weaponry; we were approached by several groups of them as we made our way through the park. Their English was quite impressive.

Anyhow, the largest chunk of time was spent at the museum. It documents (in English and Japanese) the progression of events toward Japan's involvement in World War II, the development of the atomic bomb, the decision to use the atomic bomb, the bombing of Hiroshima, and the reconstruction of Hiroshima. The English text, at least, was surprisingly frank about the rise of Japanese militarism even prior to WWII. I'd be curious to know how direct they were in the Japanese text throughout the exhibits. The first part of the museum was mostly comprised of the timeline of events, with photos, letters, and some video displays. It was extremely educational. It also included a look at nuclear proliferation and the current distribution of nuclear weapons throughout the world.

The second part of the museum focused more on the actual effects of the bomb. There were a few displays about damage to structures and various objects (a stack of hundreds of sewing needles that had fused into one solid lump, metal shutters bent inward by the force of the blast), but most of the displays were artifacts intended to show what happened to the people of Hiroshima. Each item was accompanied with a brief description of the person who had owned it, where they were when the city was bombed, and what became of them. There were a lot of tattered and burnt school uniforms. At that time, a lot of students had been conscripted to do physical labor at sites across the city, meaning that there were a lot of junior high and high school students outdoors when the bombing occurred. In most of the item descriptions, the student who owned that item stayed alive just long enough to get themselves back home, where they died. There were also items belonging to students whose bodies were never recovered, but whose deaths were essentially confirmed by the location where the items were found. Most of the items were clothing, but there was also a lock of singed hair that one victim's mother had kept as a memento, and some skin and fingernails kept by another student's mother.

Of course, the museum also documented the effects of the bomb on people's bodies. There was a sort of diorama with wax models of victims shambling around with their skin half melted off. That was possibly the most graphic imagery; it was even more disturbing than many of the actual photographs. Still, I think the focus was on accurately portraying the effects of the blast and radiation, not just on shocking the viewer. The exhibits described the physical effects immediately following the blast, and the illnesses that resulted from the radiation. One famous story is of a girl named Sadako who was more or less uninjured in the blast but developed leukemia at the age of 12. There was a timeline of her life, describing her as a small child, progressing to her diagnosis, her treatment, and her death. There's a story that if you fold a thousand paper cranes, your wish will be granted. She is remembered for folding paper cranes in hope of recovery; she folded over a thousand.

Anyhow, it's kind of hard to know how to describe the museum. There was a lot of content to absorb. Both Sasha and I were kind of burnt out when we left, as you'd expect. It's not a very easy thing to wrap your mind around. Though the timing was somewhat unfortunate, our next stop was lunch. I have to admit, while some of the images in the museum were horrifying, none of them made me feel physically ill. So neither of us had too much trouble eating our okonomiyaki. Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki is somewhat different from the type we get in Osaka. The Hiroshima type also has a layer of noodles cooked into it. Watching the chefs prepare the okonomiyaki was almost hypnotic; their movements were so fast and deft. It was a welcome distraction.

After the museum, we went to see Hiroshima Castle. It turned out to be less impressive than we expected, though the interior had been made into a rather nice museum when it was rebuilt. I think our time might've been better spent shopping. By this point we were pretty tired, so we went back to the hostel to take a nap before going out for the evening.

Since we were in the big city, we couldn't miss our opportunity to go out of an evening. We got dressed up, found some dinner, and went to find a club that the hostel had recommended. It turned out not so easy to find the club, since it's in a neighborhood where there are clubs on every floor of every building... and probably half of them are hostess clubs. We had pretty much given up on finding the place and were trying to spot somewhere that looked decent when we found the club we were looking for. To our surprise, there was also a salsa club on the floor above it. When the original club turned out to be mostly empty with rather poor music, we went up to check out the salsa club.

I should mention that Sasha particularly loves salsa dancing. I've never seen her dance salsa, but I have reason to believe she's quite good at it. So I was very surprised when she didn't dance at all. I don't know how the latin dance communities are, but in swing groups, women can also ask men to dance. And if no one is asking you to dance, then it's up to you to go ask them. I tried to prod her into asking someone, but she wouldn't do it. I think she was a bit disheartened when someone asked me to dance but didn't ask her. It's rather unfortunate that he started with me, since I barely know any salsa. I more or less managed to follow since he gave a clear lead and stuck to simple things, so I enjoyed it, but the fact that he asked me and not Sasha didn't help her self esteem. She told me later that she figured he was thinking she was fat and couldn't dance. For one thing, Sasha's not fat, and for another, the guy didn't give us any reason to believe he thought Sasha couldn't dance. I think it's more likely that he just wasn't systematically asking each person in the club to dance with him, and he missed Sasha by chance. But I understand that it doesn't feel so good to be passed over. I've felt the same way at dance conventions when it seems like no one is asking me to dance.

However, the story has an upside. While we were at the salsa club, a group of guys came in. Two of them were foreign and two of them were Japanese. They started talking to Sasha while I was dancing. It turns out that they all played in a band from Tokyo. They were all a fair bit older than us (I think the youngest was 32 and the oldest was maybe 54), but very friendly and not at all creepy. They were a lot of fun to talk to, and I never felt like they were trying to pick us up. One of them knew of a good club, so we went with them to check it out. It turned out to have great music for dancing to (hallelujah!) so we stayed there until about 2:30 am. We didn't get contact information from any of the guys, so I doubt we'll ever see them again, but they were good company.

Saturday we slept in a bit, then headed to Miyajima. Miyajima is a little island just off of Hiroshima's coast. It's famous for a very large torii gate at Itsukushima Shrine. When the tide is in, it looks like the gate is floating on the water. Unfortunately, the tide was not in, so it was just kind of standing in the mud. Since it was a holiday weekend, there were also about half a million other tourists. It was a lot less picturesque than I had been expecting, and I was a little disappointed. It's supposed to be one of the three best views in Japan. I think the thing I enjoyed most on the island was the deer. There were very small deer roaming all over the place. They were about the size of a mule deer's fawn, I think; I'm pretty sure most of them were smaller than goats. They would try to steal food from visitors. They were very tame, and would brush right past you on their way to some unsuspecting victim. Sasha took an awesome picture of a little boy staring down a deer. It's a very cute shot; you wouldn't know that just a few seconds earlier he'd been making faces at it.

After Miyajima, we attempted a little shopping, but found mostly stores selling designer clothing that we couldn't fit into and wouldn't have spent that much money on. We weren't sure if we wanted to go out that night, so we thought we'd take a nap and decide later in the evening. I woke up from the nap around midnight, at which point we decided we probably weren't going out.

On Sunday morning we got up at a more reasonable hour so we could attempt a little more shopping. We got a recommendation from one of the ladies at the hostel so that we wouldn't keep running into the expensive boutique malls. The mall we went to looked promising, but was something of a disappointment. At one store the shop girl wouldn't even let us try on the clothing. Well, she let Sasha try on one top, but vetoed another, and didn't let me try on the one I was interested in. Seriously. She just looked at us and said, "Dekinai." (You can't.) I'm pretty sure she had decided we couldn't fit into the clothing and would damage it by trying it on. Sure, the tops were slightly small, but not by so much as to be unreasonable for us to try them on. Being told we couldn't try something on was kind of a shock, and we both felt a little insecure after that, so we didn't enjoy the rest of the mall as much. There were a few shops with beautiful gothic lolita clothes, but rather than enjoying looking at them, I was just depressed at how small everything was. There was even a skirt that I liked and could have worn as normal clothing, but just looking at it I could tell there was no way it would fit around my waist. It was rather discouraging.

Anyhow, despite having every intention of spending money irresponsibly, the only things I bought in Hiroshima were a pair of cheap sunglasses, a Hello Kitty cell phone strap, and omiyage for my two schools. I guess I shouldn't complain, but whenever I go to a big city I'm always hopeful I'll find some wonderful clothes. Well, I'll just have to save my money for the next time I go to Osaka or Tokyo.

All in all, it was a pretty good trip. I feel like I've satisfied the Hiroshima sightseeing requirements, so if I go back, it'll likely be to party. If we go by bus it's not any more expensive than going to Osaka, and now we know that there is decent nightlife in Hiroshima. One observation Sasha made was that Hiroshima seemed to have a larger number of attractive young men wandering around, seemingly without girlfriends. In Osaka you see plenty of young people but they're usually paired off. So that's always something to consider. As cities go, I have a pretty favorable impression of Hiroshima. It's clean and easy to get around, and the people are very helpful. It seemed like whenever we pulled a map out, someone stopped to ask if we needed help. So at some point I would like to go back.