Day 32 - Bunnies and A-Bombs

It's been hard to keep up with writing the last few days as we've traveled a bit more frequently. Today, we left fairly early and made it to Otsu station with about 3 minutes before our first train. Then, our big yogurt drink fell off a bag and splattered all over my computer bag. It was momentary chaos as we tried to clean up and get everyone on a crowded train.

We made it and took the Shinkansen south to Fukuyama, then a smaller train along the cost of the inland sea to Mihara, then an even smaller train to Tadanoumi station where we caught a short ferry to..... BUNNY ISLAND!  The island is actually called Okunoshima, and is most famous for being the place where Japan's chemical weapons were developed in WWII. 

The reason the wade girls and I wanted to visit the island, though, is that there are hundreds of fluffy bunnies that roam it's shores in search of visitors with vegetables. We had our bags so we kept it simple and fed the few dozen little guys who were camped out near the ferry terminal and then returned to our journey, but it would be a fun place to spend a day. 

After taking a ferry back to Tadanoumi and Mihara, we caught another Shinkansen to Hiroshima - we happened to end up on a train car that was full of French students on a school trip. In fact, we've run in to more French people this trip than I have ever seen in Japan - not sure why, but it's interesting.

In Hiroshima we took a trolley across town to the A-Bomb Dome, the only building ruins that weren't cleared away during the reconstruction of the city.

We talked with the kids about the context of the place and tried to prep them for the intense experience of the Peace Park and Museum and then we walked through the park, stopping longest at the memorial to the children who died in the blast. All the girls have heard the story about Sadako and the paper cranes, and this monuments has thousands and thousands of paper cranes on display from all over Japan and the world. More than most, this monument conveys the conflicting emotions of sadness for the horrific suffering of the people of Hiroshima and Nagasaki but also hope for the next generation and faith in the goodness of most people.

The museum visit was next and I stayed with Lila while the others took their time reading the displays and looking at the artifacts. This is about the tenth time I have visited the museum, and it has changed significantly over the years. It's under renovation now, so t he viewable exhibit is smaller than usual, but the tone of the place has also shifted over the past 25 years. When I first visited, the main focus was clearly on the suffering of the survivors of the blast. There were gruesome wax sculptures and it was dark and felt ominous inside. Today, there is still an intense emotional appeal to make sure this never happens again, but the focus seems more historical and more centered on artifacts and details of before, during, and after the bombing itself. I'm not settled on which is "better," but I do like that there are efforts made to look forward and hope for peace. I'll have to come back again after the renovations are completed.

When it's this hot and humid, it takes real physical effort to move through the thick air, and walking back to the trolley, we found ourselves totally drained very quickly. I can't help but think of the bomb survivors for whom the humid summer air was far from the top of their list of concerns. 

Back at the stations, we tried Japanese burgers at Lotteria to mixed reviews (Ang loved her avocado burger) and then took one more train and one more ferry to Miyajima. We checked into our inn and crashed after a long day.

また宮島に帰るのは安心です。