Day 29 (T) - Hiroshima

Following the awesome 2-hour Shinkansen ride, where Ani learned how wonderful Shinkansen are -- smooth, spacious, and most importantly, fast -- we arrived in the city of Hiroshima, literally 'spacious island'. As you probably know, Hiroshima was bombed by nuclear 'Little Boy' during WWll and almost totally destroyed. 

Here is the city before:

And after:

Fires from the blast burned for three days after, and many thousands of people who managed to survive the incident later died from radiation poisoning. Hiroshima is now a big, bustling city, and the main attraction for tourists is Heiwakinenkoen, Peace Memorial Park. 

We walked from the station to the park and arrived with a half hour to spend in the Peace Memorial Museum. The entry fee was a whole 50 yen, so we went in. Most of it was pretty disturbing, but it was interesting. 

Here is a picture of the ?? Clock which keeps track of nuclear testing. Supposedly if the bottom gear turns, the world is in danger, and the clock will explode. 

We read about Sadako, the little girl who died of cancer after the bombing, who heard that if you folded a thousand paper cranes your wish would be granted. She folded the cranes until she died, and some are in the museum, 

 some are surrounding the Children's Peace Memorial which was built because of her. 

These are all made of cranes:

The park was nice, we saw frog sitting on lily pads, 

the A-Bomb Dome, which used to be the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall and was kept in memorial where all the other building ruins were cleared, 

and the mound where the ashes of the bomb victims are gathered. 

Depressing. But neat. 
After that we had to wander ourselves back to the station and go home. Much more successful day trip than Monday!