This summer, I decided to pick Hiroshima as my travel destination with Rizky and four other friends. Hiroshima was an interesting pick because there is an atomic bomb commemoration ceremony on Aug 6th. However, due to some reasons, we changed our date to 3-4 August, thus failed to watch the ceremony. Yet, we didn't regret it at all! Here's the story of our trip to Hiroshima.

The Trip

We went to Hiroshima by JR special ticket "Seishun 18kippu". This ticket act like JR Pass for local resident (since we, locals, cannot use JR Pass) but has a way cheaper price than JR Pass - only ¥2,370 for a one day ticket! However, there is a limitation to the ticket such as the validity period and the type of the train that we are allowed to use. We may only board with local, rapid, and special rapid JR trains, and are not allowed to take any express or shinkansen. Thus, we had a 6 hours trip (with a twist). If you are interested to know more about Seishun 18kippu, you may check more info in this website. Here is the route that we used when using Seishun 18kippu. You might check it via Hyperdia.com (make sure you choose 'more option' and check only the route with local trains from JR). 

Getting on a train for 6 hours with 4 transits are not boring when you have your friends around. We managed to board every train on schedule until we arrived at our last transfer station: Itozaki Station. The next departing train is only one minute away, so we prepared our best to move as soon as possible. However, when we arrived at Itozaki Station, we didn't see the next train  scheduled on the board. Panic and confuse, we asked the train driver. Turns out, all local train around that area are stopped due to the broken railroad caused by a typhoon last week. The railroad will be closed until October 2018 - the only way for us to get into Hiroshima from Itozaki is by riding a shinkansen from Mihara, one station from Itozaki. We were laughing when the train driver asked us if we didn't watch the news - because the closing of the railroad was announced by Japan TV News. We feel like someone who just gets out from a cave. Lesson learned: do not 100% trust Hyperdia, do check JR website before you go (the least you can do if you don't have TV like us..).

Luckily, I have great traveling friends. Instead of being cranky because the plan is changed, they used the extra time waiting for the next train for taking photos with the cute yellow Okayama local train. And who knows, our shinkansen to Hiroshima will be way much cuter: it's Hello Kitty Shinkansen!!

The Shinkansen from Mihara to Hiroshima takes only 22 minutes, two stations, and ¥2,200. We didn't plan to take the Hello Kitty one, it just happened that it was the next shinkansen available. As we chose to use the non-reserved seat, we got on board in the second car which has a small lounge with Hello Kitty statue welcoming the passenger and floors with printed images of Hello Kitty. The first car even used for a special shop of Hello Kitty souvenir, with a small lounge where passengers can seat. The Hello Kitty sign is everywhere on the train. Cuteness overload!

Miyajima Island

We managed to arrive in Hiroshima on schedule, despite having some shinkansen twist. Our first impression of Hiroshima: it's hot. Everywhere in Japan is hot now, but somehow the public building in Hiroshima did not have an appropriate air conditioner. Our favorite was the cute city tram! The city looks normal and lovely, despite having an A-bomb incident 73 years ago.

The City Tram

After lunch, we met Muthi (who departed later after lab's seminar and went through 1/3 hours of our trip by shinkansen directly from Kyoto), put our luggage in the locker in Hiroshima Station, and then went to Miyajima! Apparently, everyone in the group is not aware on the fact that we will ride a 10 minutes ferry boat from Miyajima-guchi Station to Miyajima Island (am I the one who did the research here..?). However, they are all excited to see the sea, the island, and the famous floating torii! As a note, the JR ferry to Miyajima Island is also included in the Seishun 18kippu. If you are going to buy a roundtrip ticket, it costs ¥360.

We arrived on the island around 5 PM, which apparently quite late because some shops were already closed in the Omotesando Shopping Street (no, this is not the same as the one in Tokyo).   We managed to taste some local culinary though, including lemon ice cream, Momiji Manju, and oyster. Muthi and Pawpaw were happy to meet their favorite honey shop on the island too! We also found out that Miyajima is famous with its giant rice scoop. 

Tasty lemon ice cream

Favorite honey drink with ice cream

Momiji manju

Giant rice scoop

Oyster with lemon

Around 6 PM, we took a walk around the beach that leads to the Itsukushima Shrine great torii. Fyi, the Torii is accessible without having to enter the shrine. That late afternoon, the tide is low, so we were able to walk around the torii while taking photos. When the tide is high, the Torii will appear like floating - which makes it one of the three most scenic spots in Japan.

Miyajima actually has so much more than the torii gate: they have an old town, an aquarium, a mountain to hike, a Momijidani park which said to be beautiful in autumn, etc. If you have more time, I would suggest visiting Miyajima Island around 1-2 PM to explore not only the culinary and the torii but also other features on the island. If you arrive around this hour you may also have a chance to take a picture of the torii in a high tide (check the tide table here).

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

The second day in Hiroshima, we planned to explore the city. Our Airbnb (which happened to be a comfortable one, despite some air conditioner problem) was just a walk away from the Peace Memorial Park, thus we decided to explore it first. 

Despite being here in Hiroshima city for travel, I actually feel a bit of sorrow. The city itself has already recovered, operating as other normal cities in Japan. But I kept having the thought that this city, in this very place where I stand, once was a black and white world full of dust and ashes. 

One of the remaining from the a-bomb incident was kept by the city government to commemorate the August 6th, 1945: The A-bomb Dome, which used to be the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. This building was one of the surviving structure during the incident, despite its location that is only 160 m from the a-bomb hypocenter. The atomic bomb exploded at the height of 600 m above the ground, blast such a great pressure and an extremely hot wind to Hiroshima city. The people inside the A-Bomb Dome at that time died instantly. 

Across The A-Bomb Dome, there is The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. During our walking time in the park, we saw The Peace Bell, The Children Peace Monument, The Flame of Peace, The Pond of Peace, and The Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims. 

The Peace Bell was installed as a praying symbol for stopping the use of the nuclear weapon and bring the peace to the world. The Children's Monument was built to commemorate Sadako Sasaki and other thousands of children who died because of the a-bomb incident. Sadako Sasaki was a young girl exposed by radiation from the a-bomb incident when she was two years old and died ten years later because of leukemia. During her treatment in the hospital, Sadako kept folding paper cranes, hoping she will recover from the sickness. Nowadays, we can see thousands of folding paper cranes surrounding The Children Peace Monument, and Sadako Sasaki as a symbol of peace on the top of the monument.

Though I didn't manage to take pictures of The Flame of Peace and The Pond of Peace (because the weather was freaking hot at that time), here's some story about the structure: The Flame of Peace lit up in 1964, hoping for a world without nuclear weapons. It is said that the flame will continue to burn until nuclear weapons are gone from the world. The Pond of Peace is a structure that built to support the Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims, to show it as if the Cenotaph is floating. From the center of The Cenotaph, we can see The Flame of Peace and The A-Bomb Dome.

The Peace Bell

The Cenotaph for the A-Bomb Victims

Finished exploring most of the monuments in Peace Park, we entered The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Unfortunately, the main building of the museum is under renovation until spring 2019. Luckily, they opened the east building in which most of the stories about the a-bomb incident was told. However, there was some installation that is not available to access because it is all in the main building. The museum in the east building open at 8:30-18:00 every day, the entrance costs ¥200. 

The museum starts with a big picture of Hiroshima before the incident. It was an urban industrial area, some of the industry serving logistics supply for the Japanese military. Then, we entered the dark room with a title "6 August 1945, 8:15 AM". The picture in the room showed how such urban industrial area turned into debris. They also have a simulation of the a-bomb using a projector. In my mind, I kept imagining the incident day. It might be felt just like a normal morning, just like what we have today. But in seconds, everything changed. No one predicted such an incident will happen. No one had an opportunity to say goodbye to their loved one. They just - gone.

We continued to walk inside the museum. The next part of the museum is "The Dangerous of The Nuclear Weapons". It told us about US plan on developing an atomic bomb during World War II, which cities they consider to bomb (before choosing on Hiroshima, they almost pick Kyoto..), the destruction that a-bomb made to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, etc. The bomb that was used to bomb Hiroshima was named "Little Boy": 3 meters in length, 0.7 meters in diameter, 4 tons in weight, contain Uranium-235 (which only half of the kilograms reacted during the bombing). In this part, we also learned that though a-bomb caused such devastation in Japan, the development of such weapon has not stopped until now (Check Marshall Island and Bikini Atoll in google if you are interested to know more).

The fourth part of the museum is "The History of Hiroshima", which mostly tell stories about the city recovering from the a-bomb incident. The last part, which is the most heart-touching part, is "Outline of Atomic Bomb Damage". In this part of the museum, they kept some of the belongings of the victims of the incident, donated by their family to the museum: elementary school uniform, a watch that stopped at 8:15, dresses, and many more. The one that touches my heart the most was the writing and the photos written and captured by Yoshito Matsuhige, a photographer who had to battle himself before taking pictures of the victims. Some words that I remember is,

"The viewfinder was blurred by my teary eyes. It was hell."

It was a really tough time for the Japanese, especially those who are in Hiroshima. They desperately needed water because of the extreme heat, but all the water they found was contaminated. Even the rain that pouring down was a black rain because the atmosphere above the city has been polluted with smoke and dust from the explosion. Those who survived have a really hard time - some of them even have to bear the disease caused by the radiation for years. The name of the victims of a-bomb dome was written in The Hall of Remembrance. Some of their stories were filmed into a short animated movie and showed in The Hall. 

Hiroshima Culinary Experience

Finished with The Peace Memorial Museum, we were actually planning to visit two more places: The Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) and Hiroshima Castle. But after lunch, there was a drama: one of the precious belonging of our friend was lost, thus we had to go back to the Peace Park and reported to the nearest police station. When we were done with the lost of belonging procedure, it's nearly closing time of The Hiroshima MOCA. In addition, the weather was so freaking hot, we barely have any energy to go to Hiroshima Castle. Thus, we decided to stroll around Hondori Street, the shopping street in the middle of Hiroshima City, to find a suitable cafe for us to rest. We managed to buy Hara Donuts, soymilk donuts recommended by Halal Guide in Hiroshima. Despite the cute shop, the taste of the donut was so-so.

Hara Donuts

Hondori Street

Around 6 PM, we moved to Nagataya, the famous okonomiyaki restaurant in Hiroshima. Though I understand there is an okonomiyaki district named "Okonomimura" near to Hondori Street, but knowing that Nagataya serves a menu that is Muslim-friendly, I didn't feel necessary to go explore Okonomimura. Okonomiyaki in a conventional way contains pork meat or pork sauce, thus to pick a restaurant that is Muslim-friendly is important. Nagataya located near to Peace Park and Hondori Street. They always have people lining, but luckily, we didn't have to wait too long. 

We pick the vegetarian menu with B option: no pork meat and no oil and seasoning containing pork. Then, we choose the toppings: seafood, kimchi, and cheese & shrimp. Lastly, we picked soba as the noodle topping of our okonomiyaki. Different from Osaka style, Hiroshima Okonomiyaki uses noodle as one of its toppings. In Nagataya, you may choose between soba and udon. The vegetarian okonomiyaki price range between ¥900-¥1200.

The okonomiyaki served with Otafuku vegetable sauce. They put the sauce and the mayonnaise in the table so you might add it as your topping if you needed. They also mentioned that before cooking the vegetarian menu, they always wash the plate and the utensils. 

How was the taste? I really love it, it was really delicious! To be honest I am not a fan of the Osaka style okonomiyaki, because it has such a strong smell. But Hiroshima okonomiyaki is different. We first ordered three okonomiyaki, but since it was delicious, we added two more. If you are in Hiroshima, don't miss Nagataya okonomiyaki!

Closing Remarks

Though we didn't manage to explore lots of places in Hiroshima, the city thought me a lot. To appreciate God's creation, because it's not every day I could see such beautiful sea and landscape like the one in Miyajima. To keep being grateful that I can still walk healthy in this hot weather - because 73 years ago people walked in this city in 3000 degrees Celcius heat burning their skin, looking for help. To always be humble and to not stop learning, because there are so many things that I haven't know yet. And above all - to be thankful for having great traveling friends that manage to always be cheerful despite the drama and the uncomfortable weather. Thank you, Hiroshima!