Vacation!!!- Part 3- Hiroshima

Doug, Mary and I drove the 40 min estimated (but was really closer to 1hr 15 min due to traffic and trying to find a parking space) to Hiroshima for the day. Unfortunately, this was our one rainy day. And even though the BOQ offered free umbrellas for guests to use, they could only seem to find one. One's better than none, right? We were able to scurry in out of the rain to the Peace Memorial Museum. Ok, maybe not the best idea for taking a 2 yr old after being cooped up in the car for an hour. She wanted to run and play. Thank goodness it was only about 50cents per ticket, since I really didn't get to look or read very much. I was on Mary patrol while Doug walked around, but by the time we made it to the second floor, she was done. It would have been nice to be able to go back there and really look at everything. They had a big replica on what the epicenter looked like before the bomb hit and then one that depicted the "after". It was amazing. Doug was impressed that the museum didn't seem to bash the US and put all the blame on us. He said there were parts that talked about the Japanese aggression at the time. We have a Peace Memorial Park here on Okinawa that made us feel like we were to blame for the whole battle of Okinawa. Made me wonder why the locals are so nice to us.

This is the A-bomb dome. This building was originally the Industrial Promotion Hall and it stood close to the point where the bomb exploded. All the occupants of the building were killed instantly and this is what remained. It has been preserved all these years by the UNESCO World Heritage Site.

This is a picture of the Cenotaph (the arch), which was built as a memorial to the victims of the bomb. It contains the names of everyone who died and an inscription that reads "rest in peace. We will never repeat the error." Behind it, you will see the Flame of Peace, which they say will never be extinguished until all the nuclear weapons have been eliminated from the Earth. In the background, you will see another view of the A-bomb Dome.

We then headed to a local Onokomyiaki restaurant that was recommended to us. We had never had this before, but I had heard of it. It's essentially a huge (and I mean HUGE) noodle pancake with yummy toppings. Mine had pork, cabbage, egg, green onion and a delicious sauce. Doug's was practically the same, but he had cheese and corn and no onion. Mary liked both equally. She just loves noodles. And yes, we did clean our plates...or at least I did.

I had read in the tour book about a Children's science museum that provided hands on play for kiddos. I thought this would be a great place to explore and help Mary get some exercise, even though we were quickly approaching nap time. What a cool place! Can you believe it was free? Heelloo? Doesn't this city want money for anything? I absolutely loved this place. Mary could, and was encouraged to touch everything. She especially liked the tunnel. She looks like a caged animal. Of course the train set was a huge hit too.

On a side note, we tried to go to Miyajima Island the next day (our last day in Iwakuni). It was a beautiful day, nice clear skies and we thought it would be perfect. Apparently, so did everyone else. After sitting in traffic forever and passing full parking lots after lot, we decided we had tried our best and called it quits. We explored downtown Iwakuni looking for trinkets and souvenirs and found a surprisingly good restaurant hidden off the beaten path. And even though we didn't get to see a beautiful island and the floating tori gate or pet the tame deer and eat delicious cakes only made on that island, we had some good quality family time and Mary got to see her favorite playground one more time.