Hiroshima Trip, Day 1

Side view of the Shinkansen. It makes Speedy Gonzales
look like regular Gonzales!

Okay, so I'm just going to stop making promises about new posts at this point because I never seem to deliver on them. However! This most recent outing is most definitely worth cataloguing. I'd say it's my favorite thing I've done here so far. And to think I almost didn't make it!

The evening before the three-day trip was set to begin, I suddenly came down with a fever of a little over 100 degrees and threw up about eight times over the course of the night. Not fun. My host family had been dealing with the same bug since a day or two before, but they seemed to be getting over it pretty fast, so I figured I'd just  wear a face mask (that's what people do when they get sick here), take some medication, and go, hoping for the best.

We planned our invasion for hours before
finally deciding to enter via the front door.

Saturday was pretty rough, but we didn't actually do all that much. Most of the day was spent on the Shinkansen, which is the Japanese bullet train. The ride was about four hours, but it really didn't feel that long. The train was so comfortable; there was plenty of leg room, no seat belts, seats that leaned back surprisingly far, and you could get up and walk around whenever. It was pretty much the opposite of an airliner.

Once we arrived, we took a tram to our hotel to check into our rooms and drop off our luggage. I was in a two-person room with one of the other guys. Next, we met up with our tour guide, Ms. Yukiko Uehira (who I have to say, was the most awesome tour guide I've had in years). She looked to be in her 50s, but had dry sense of humor uncharacteristic of her age. She actually seemed to fit in with the students better than the staff, much to our delight.

Uehira-san took us on a tour of the Hiroshima Peace park, which was built in remembrance of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima. People regularly bring strings of 1,000 paper cranes to the memorial of a young girl who died of leukemia following the spread of radiation from the bomb. Large plexiglass cases contain over 10 million cranes people have folded as a symbol of respect for those who died. There's actually art within the cases made by arranging the many cranes and using their colors like pixels to form pictures.

"So we'e gonna take some soba noodles, put 'em on a crepe
thing, throw some bacon on 'em, toss an egg in there, put
some veggies in for good measure,  then cover it
in sauce. Sound good?" "Um...yes."

Hirosima Castle was up next. This is an actual ancient Japanese castle. Of course it doesn't have to defend its walls much these days, but it was still incredible to enter and ascend to the top. The architecture is just so different from anything back home.

That night we went out for dinner at one of Hiroshima's okonomiyaki restaurants. As for what okonomiyaki is, I'm just going to have to rely on the picture, because I don't really know how describe it other than a cooked pile of awesome stuff. Supposedly Hiroshima has the best okonomiyaki in Japan, and I have to say, it really was delicious. I had been avoiding food for the earlier part of the day due to my stomach bug, but I decided to indulge in dinner and cross my fingers, hoping not to see that food again until it had been thoroughly digested. (Great success on that front, by the way. I was pretty much better by that night.)

We walked around town a bit after dinner on our way back to the hotel. The amount of Christmas lights in Hiroshima is absurd. Everything is covered in twinkling lights and hollow light sculptures line the streets. It was absolutely surreal; I felt like I was in a dream.

And soon I was after snuggling into bed for a good night's rest.