Hiroshima City

The day before Karlee left, we all headed out to Hiroshima City for the day. We thought it might be a bit strange if she returned to Canada never actually having gone to the capital city. We didn't have any particular plan of what we were going to do for the day, but mostly just wanted to stroll around, shop, and see a few monuments.

The A-Bomb Dome

We took the train from Fukuyama west into Hiroshima City which took about 2 hours. About a 40 minute walk from the train station there is a whole area with parks, museums, and monuments. We let Theo run around and terrorize pigeons, or chibbins as he has taken to calling them, while we looked at the atomic bomb dome. This is a building that was destroyed when the atomic bomb was dropped on August 6th, 1945 and left standing as a memorial to all of the people killed by the bomb. It was originally a government building for the promotion of industry and the bomb was detonated almost directly above this building.

Nearby was the Hiroshima Peace Museum which we wanted to peruse, but realized that the kids would never be patient or quiet enough for us to enjoy it. I am not sure if "enjoy" is the correct word here, since I would most likely emerge from this museum pretty depressed and/or crying, but even so, I can't wait for the day when the kids are older and not every thing we do on a trip centers around them. Instead we let Theo give the peace bell a ring and headed over to the Children's Museum.

This was a fantastic (and free) museum that had three floors of hands on exhibits to explore and a planetarium. After a morning of sightseeing, Theo was freakishly happy to be able to run around, touch, and climb everything in sight. 

Ummm, I'm not so sure about this one....

Our last tour for the day was at the Hiroshima Castle. Outside, the boys and I checked out a few very neat old trees that survived the atomic bomb and some cute turtles in the moat around the castle.

The castle was originally built in 1590 but was destroyed by the bomb. It was reconstructed in 1958.

There were a hand full of exhibits inside and a chance to dress up in costume. Theo was pumped that he got to dress up as a samurai. The helmet itself weighed about 15 lbs. so I am surprised he kept it on as long as he did.

Before we turned back to the station, we had a supper of okonomiyaki. These are savory pancakes made from flour, cabbage, noodles, and your choice of meats and other vegetables fried on a large griddle. Okonomiyaki is made all over Japan, but Hiroshima prides itself as the only place that makes them the right way. This was my first time to have them Hiroshima-style and they were fantastic. Pictured here is the "deluxe okonomiyaki" with soba noodles, cabbage, pork, cheese, and mochi, topped with okonomiyaki sauce, shiso flakes, and sesame seeds. Yum!

I wouldn't say that Hiroshima was the most interesting city that I have spent the day wandering in, but none the less, we had a great time strolling around.