We planned appropriately for once -- there was some serious rain overnight, and this morning the rain continued. Would certainly have not been a great day strolling around Miyajima.

We slept in and by mid morning were walking around in the drizzle on our way to the Peace Memorial Park. We stopped at Starbucks (of course) and lamented the wacky policy places like Starbucks have in Japan for free wifi internet. They "offer" it, but it requires a lengthy registration process that, idiotically enough, requires a working internet connection! So no free wi-fi here...

The Peace Memorial Park was only a short distance from the hotel. We decided to start our visit a the Peace Museum. We spent more than 2 hours walking through this excellent museum and left watery eyed and with a sense of the need the eliminate nuclear weapons, forever. The museum and Hiroshima in general have done a great job focusing attention on the need to eliminate nuclear weapons so what happened here and in Nagasaki never happen again. It is a powerful message.

Looking at Hiroshima today, there is little evidence of the almost total destruction that hit the city on August 6, 1945. The first atomic bomb was dropped here at 8:15am and exploded about 1,900 feet above the city, centered on the Shima Hospital. The initial blast radius was about 1 square mile, and the fireball resulting from the explosion engulfed approximately 5 square miles. The resulting fires destroyed nearly 70% of the city and killed nearly 100,000 people right away. Another 200,000 were killed later by injuries and radiation after-effects. Particularly poignant is that many of those killed were teenagers and those captured from Korea and China who were forced to labor outside by the government at the time of the blast clearing plots of land (essentially creating fire brakes) to prepare for traditional military strikes that were expected. One of the only buildings in the hypercenter to (partially) survive was the city's Promotions Hall (now called the A-Bomb Dome). The dome still stands as a ghastly testament to what happened on that awful day.

Emerging from the museum we walked through the incredibly peaceful Memorial Park. With the gorgeous leaves changing and sun beginning to peak out from the clouds, it at times is hard to imagine what happened in this very spot about 70 years ago. The A-dome was a short distance away, and it was clearly framed against the Memorial Cenotaph which has a plaque stating "Let all souls here rest in peace, for we shall not repeat the evil". Continuing along the main path we passed the Pond for Peace whose waters are a symbolic offering for the victims who were unable to quench their thirst after the bomb and subsequent black rain. At the end of the pond burns the Flame of Peace which was first lit during the 1964 Olympic games in Tokyo. The residents of Hiroshima say the flame will be extinguished only when the world is free of all nuclear weapons.

Other notable structures include the Children's Peace Monument dedicated to all the children killed. Paper cranes made by people from all over the world to commemorate this are housed in cases at the monument. Another terribly heartbreaking and emotional story underlies this -- a young girl who apparently survived the attack developed leukemia several years later, This young girl folded over 1000 cranes before she died, and her then-classmates and eventually people from all over the world continue to make and send paper cranes as a memorial.

We wandered around to see other sites in the park including the Monument to Korean victims, the Peace Bell and the Peace Clock Tower (which chimes every morning at 8:15). We walked across the Aioi-bashi Bridge which was the intended target of the bomb and got a closer look at the A-Dome itself. We then headed a few blocks away to the Shima Hospital which was the actual center of the blast, and found the small understated memorial plaque showing what the area looked like before the bomb. Our final stop in the park was to look at the Chinese Parasol Tree which is a noted A-bomb survivor. Despite being scorched in the blast, new leaves started to bud and develop shortly after the blast and it served as inspiration for the survivors. Today it is a symbol for the tenacity of life and rebirth. In fact, a few days later in Kyoto we saw a tree that is an offspring of this survivor.

After all this emotional heaviness, we stopped at an Italian cafe and had a snack of fresh squeezed orange juice (we were worried that we weren't getting nearly enough fruits/veggies in our diet) and more oysters -- this time made a-la-escargot style. We walked around through the very delightful shopping district called Hon-dori and did some browsing and more eating. Efren got a wonderful foot massage, and we generally spent the afternoon relaxing and reflecting on everything we at seen earlier in the day.

As night fell, we were taken aback by the marvelous display of holiday lights along the city's main drag -- appropriately called "Peace Boulevard". The displays were clearly themed for Christmas, but the focus was not on outwardly religious topics and appealed to a wide audience. All of the city was out taking pictures and enjoying the displays.

For dinner we had some more sushi and tempura. The sushi display at tonight's restaurant was particularly elaborate and Efren enjoyed playing around with the nearly complete fish that was part of the dish!

We settled in at our last night at the Daiwa Roynet and appreciated the room's comfort. We had desks and chairs, which was a nice change from the ryokans. A fancy toilet (which now we knew how to use) was present. The beds were a bit on the hard side, but we endured. Japanese hotels do a nice job of providing all of the toiletries needed -- right down to toothbrushes and toothpaste in addition to shampoo and soap -- so little need to bring your own essentials. Of course all hotels provide slippers and robes (yukata). More on yukatas later...

Tomorrow we had back East and start our highly anticipated visit to the Kyoto area. Initially we were not planning on including Hiroshima in our itinerary, but we are so glad we did. The visit added a dimension to our trip that is so important and underscores the value of travel in the first place -- learning first hand about history and coming away with an understanding and appreciation that is simply not possible from textbooks. If you are going to visit Japan, take a day or two to visit Hiroshima. You will not regret it.