As planned, yesterday was a long and boring travel day. It technically took less than two hours to get from Kyoto to Hiroshima, but when you throw in transfers and figuring out how to get around in a new city we pretty much lost the entire day. The first 12 hours in any new place are always really stressful for me. No matter how much (or, in this case, how little) I prepare I still get very flustered and intimidated by the simple to task of getting from point A to point B. I'm not sure what I think will go wrong but I'm pretty impossible to be around, which Brittany can attest to. She pointed out today how everything we've done: plane, train, metro, ferry, and streetcar, has been very easy to use. I need to chillax! No matter how much we travel I still can't settle down until we've checked in and set our bags down. The bullet train to Hiroshima was fun, but carrying a giant bag full of souvenirs and outrageous amounts of candy (ostensibly for friends upon our return) got old quick. Yes we could have simply waited until the day we left to buy twenty pounds of exotic-sounding KitKats and suckers instead of lugging it all around the country, but where's the fun in that? As I often remind Brittany: nobody said I was smart haha Hiroshima feels larger and more cosmopolitan than Kyoto. We stayed in last night, munching on some prepped meals from the grocery store for dinner so we could get up bright and early this morning. I had a big day planned and we needed to start as early as Brittany could tolerate, which meant 8am. First up was the island of Miyajima. Any Disney freaks might recognize this "floating shrine" as what stands in the water just outside of Epcot Japan. A short 20 minute ferry ride got us out to the island, and we savored the views from the deck of the ship. There were large forested mountains in every direction, shrouded in a hazy fog that gave an ethereal element to the island. I really had no idea how mountainous Japan was! It makes it all the more beautiful. And to think: we're seeing Japan in the dead of winter at its absolute frumpiest! What must this place look like in the spring or fall? I bet sexy summer Japan is a stone-cold fox. We were fortunate enough to get there when the tide was coming in. If you catch it when the tide is out, you see a beautiful shrine sitting on a big pile of mud rather than a gently undulating pillow of emerald green water. Sure it would have been nice to see it on a bright sunny day, but having the tide and really light crowds was great too. I was only expecting to see the Torii gate, so it was a pleasant surprise to learn that there were many interesting buildings on the island, including two pagodas. We walked around for about an hour, basically waiting for the shops and stalls to open up as it was still so early in the day. Pretty soon the crowds started rolling in, and a huge group of school kids joined us at the shrine. Brittany had only just finished saying how she's pleasantly surprised that we (white tourist people) aren't really seen as an oddity when we learned that, to the school kids at least, we're total freaks :) They giggled in groups and cheerfully shouted "hello!" and "hi!" as they walked by. I'm sure that's all the English they know, and they were very happy to finally use it! We got to see another young couple take their wedding photos with the gate in the background (I promise you will never see a woman with more beautiful or ridiculously complicated hair) and enjoyed an ice cream sandwich that "makes the #1 ice cream lovers Americans scream AMAZING!" We pretty much bought that just because of the undeniably clever advertising. And yes, it was AMAZING! After taking in the shrine and most of the surrounding buildings we walked to a nearby restaurant for lunch. The island is famed for its oysters and I read about a place called Kakiya that tripadvisor swore by. Sure enough, by 11am there was already a line of locals out the door...a good sign. We got in line, quickly jumped out of line in search of an ATM (why does NOBODY take cards around here???), got back in line and were soon escorted to the second floor of a surprisingly high end restaurant. Now, I've had oysters plenty of times, but I have never had anything like this. These babies were the cream of the crop, harvested right off the island, intensely flavorful and oh so delicious. Even Brittany liked them, which should really tell you something! We had them grilled, fried, and au gratin, which basically means covered in crumbs, butter, and cheese. These were obviously my favorite and we had two orders of them. Our second order was not eaten in the restaurant but, rather, on Cloud 9 where I gently floated in midair and smiled with an intensity unequaled by the Cheshire Cat. The grill was on the first floor just below us, and the oysters made the sound of a roaring fire as they cooked. We could have eaten oysters at pretty much any restaurant there for twenty bucks instead of the eighty that we ended up spending, but I will never forget that lunch and the perfectly-paired sake it came with! I am eternally grateful, oh wise and mighty tripadvisor. After lunch we journeyed back to the mainland to visit the Peace Park, which is literally ground zero of the first atomic bomb. One building that miraculously survived the blast has been preserved as evidence of what occurred, and it is a moving experience to meditate on that destruction while standing in front of it. Sadly, a large portion of the museum was closed for renovations. What was still open was extremely educational. I really admired how they presented the information. They didn't get into the ethics of the bomb or the role of Japan or the US in the war. The museum simply focused on the facts of what happened and the results of that event. I honestly had no idea how horrific the injuries of survivors were, and it was especially painful to see the tattered remains of children's school uniforms. Much of the exhibit focused on the aftermath, including the residual effects of radiation that sometimes emerged a decade later. I got an overview of events and effects that I certainly never received while in school. It was very similar to our experience at the Holocaust museum: the rooms are weighed down by a heavy silence where no one speaks above a whisper, and you leave saddened but enlightened. There is so much more that I could write about the Peace Park and that museum but it's surprisingly hard to articulate emotion, especially at midnight. If you ever have the chance to visit Japan, it is not to be missed. Later, we took a short walk to see Hiroshima Castle (which is a masterful reconstruction as the original was destroyed by the bomb) and finished the night with another grocery store dinner of rice and shrimp cakes. Tomorrow will be another big day for travel and culinary revelation. We're headed back to Tokyo by way of Kobe (wagyu beef, here I come!) and Osaka. Rest assured, pictures of my glorious steak will follow.