04/04/09 SATURDAY
Today, we woke up to the sound of rain. It was somewhat chilly and lightly raining all day. First, we went to eat lunch at a recommended Okonimiyaki neighborhood mom and pop restaurant. We ate okonomiyaki (Hiroshima style - choice of ramen or udon, cabbage, bacon, and egg) - it's like a huge noodle omelet. Yum!
After lunch, we walked to Hiroshima Peace Park. We saw the A-Bomb Dome, several memorial statues and monuments. It was very beautiful and peaceful with all the cherry blossom trees. We also visited the Peace Memorial Museum. It was very impactful and informational regarding the atomic bomb and Hiroshima's history. Hiroshima is all about spreading peace across the world and stopping nuclear bombing.
There was this one story that was very touching about a very young child that survived the A-bomb. A little later in her life, she was diagnosed with leukemia from the radiation of the A-bomb. When she found out she was very ill and laid in bed of the hospital, she started folding paper cranes because she thought that if she folded over 1000 paper cranes, she would survive her disease. She past away when she was 12 and every year several students and schools would fold thousands and thousands of paper cranes in her honor and they place them at the Children's Peace Monument and other monuments throughout Peace Park. It was all very touching and we left the park speechless.
Elgin cooked dinner tonight in the hostel - ramen with pickled bamboo shoots, fried tofu skin, daikon, and poached egg ; side dish with mushrooms and onions (it's really unbelievable how cheap mushrooms are here!)
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