I woke up early once again and had a soak in the hotel’s onsen. I then went down to the Kombini (convenience store) and bought some coffees. We had a later start, meeting Harith downstairs in the lobby at about 10am. We then headed to the train station to book tickets on the Shinkansen to Tokyo the following day. We then put some more money on our Suica cards and then headed to the street car station to take the car to the Peace memorial park. We waited at the street car station for Harith as he bought a coffee at Starbucks. We then waited in line for tram number 2. It was very busy. We tapped on the tram with our Suica cards and sat at the back of the tram. There is so much history in these street cars, as some of them were back up and running only three days after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima! A few of the surviving trains even still run routes in Hiroshima. 

The ride was maybe 15 minutes and we disembarked at the A-Bomb dome. We wandered around the park for a while, silently taking in the monuments. Jives and I met a Japanese man who was practising English. He asked if we were German or from France, but we told him we were from Canada. He said he wanted to go to Niagara Falls and to see an Ice Hockey game, but that it would have to wait a few years as his wife had decided that they would visit Victoria Falls this year.

We then walked to the children’s memorial (with millions of paper cranes in honour of Sadako Sasaki). We waited in line to allow Harith to take in the eternal flame and then headed to the museum. Entrance to the Memorial museum was only 200Yen. 

We then walked around the museum individually for about an hour. Not a lot to say here. The museum was what we expected, difficult. It was packed with people, but no one was making a sound. We walked through room after room of exhibits with stories attached to each. I’m sure it’s not hard to imagine our experience here. We spent about an hour quietly shuffling through the exhibits; photos, items lost by victims, accounts of suffering… movement towards the elimination of nuclear weapons…

We then sat outside on a bench, absorbing what we had seen. We then walked to an onigiri restaurant nearby. We ordered three onigiri lunch sets. My set was huge!!! It came with a slice of salmon, two onigiri (salmon and tuna mayo), two sides (tofu spinach salad and boiled eggs), a side of pickles, miso soup and a coffee. The bill for all three came to 5500 Yen ($55). I went up to pay. The cashier had just turned away a couple, because there wasn’t a seat, but she was so excited when she saw me walking up to pay. She grabbed my tray with the money and in her enthusiasm at beckoning the couple back, she dropped the tray on the floor, spilling change all over. We picked up all the change, and I waved at Harith to tell them that someone was waiting for our table. 

We walked back to the hotel via two record stores. I went to a gacha shop instead and got two gachapon, a keychain of the Yamanote line (my favourite train in the world) and a weird fish man sulking. 

Back at the room we relaxed for quite awhile before heading out after 8pm. We walked to Hiroshima Castle to see it at night. It was only about an eighteen minute walk from our hotel. The castle’s main gate was exactly as we remembered it from 2014. There was even an identical Chrysanthamum show going on just inside the entrance. It was lovely to see that some things about Hiroshima hadn’t changed at all. We wandered up to the main tower where some hoodlums were being loud and filming tiktoks. Some things really have changed! They were mocking us in Japanese….

We then headed back to the room for one last onsen soak before bed.