Today we had nothing planned for the first time this trip, so we took full advantage. We slept in (meaning 6am for us) and finally headed out to breakfast for some Japanese souffle pancakes which were pretty darn good (and we need more food pics on our blog, for sure)!
Next on the list was the the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum (along with about 5,000 children - apparently after their exam period, it's a free-for-all and all the school kids go on fields trips like EVERYDAY, and apparently meet us at these places, as well). It was pretty brutal to see the impact of the bomb and listen to all the stories. We got an audio guide to go along with our visit, and took a while to go through the entire place, listening to the physical and psychological impacts of the bomb. Accessibility was key and we counted over 12 languages (and Japanese Hand Sign) on all the monitors.
A little more solemn than when we came in, we walked around a tiny bit before heading to Miyajima, which is a little island about a 45 minute ferry ride from downtown Hiroshima.
We didn't have any idea of where we were going, but when we got there we were shocked at how beautiful and peaceful it was (minus the 100,000 people that seem to follow us everywhere). The island is actually quite developed with shops and restaurants, but there are hundreds of deer who have become accustomed to humans and wander the streets looking for food. There were also some tourists who shouldn't have, but did, pet them (heard of rabies, people?).
We stayed on the island for almost 3 hours and bought a lot of knick-knacks and treats. Hiroshima is deep into the lemon-game, and Dave is here for it. We got lemon candies, lemon sticks, there was lemon butter (but we didn't buy this), and lemon momiji manjū (maple shaped cakes). We even got a tanuki for our front stoop! (hoping it won't be stolen) - and if you don't know what this is, go back to Day 7.
For dinner, Tsana found a new type of food we haven't tried, Mazemen. Its brothless ramen, and probably Dave's favorite so far. The way the etiquette goes, is that the very small amount of broth you have in the bottom when your noodles are done, you put rice in there to soak up the rest. It was pretty dang good! We are going to miss the tiny 10 seater restaurants that are the norm in Japan...it is just so cool to find these tiny places and wait in line and talk directly to the chef as you eat this tasty food.
Agenda for tomorrow: Run in Hiroshima, travel back to Tokyo, dinner in the "cool" district (that we are definitely too old to be in).