We hadn’t checked the weather forecast (we seem to only check it once it is already bad), but when we woke up, it was raining. Not a real rain, but a consistent rain that is annoying. The plan was to travel around on the scooter, which clearly had to be modified now that it was raining. Instead, we drove all the way into town (through the aggressive/arsehole drivers in Hiroshima) and paid for parking.
We firstly visited the museum about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. It’s an absolutely sombre place that I think every person needs to experience to fully understand the devastation of an atomic bomb.
Everyone should see it once they are old enough (I should really say mature enough, as age isn’t really a great indicator) to appreciate it. There were hundreds (honestly) of elementary school students running around, being noisy and generally annoying. I couldn’t believe the teachers letting the kids behave like this (but, also realise how little control most teachers have over students). It honestly nearly ruined the whole museum for me (and Risa).
We spent nearly 3 hours inside the museum, slowly taking it all in. It was still raining… We went outside and walked around the peace park, looking at the memorial dedicated to Sadako (the girl who tried to fold 1000 paper cranes to save her from Leukemia).
Across the river was the symbolic remains of what once was the Hiroshima Trade Exhibition Centre. It was almost directly below the hypocentre of the bomb, and yet (structurally) still remains largely intact. It has been re-enforced so that it doesn’t further decompose, but the renovations are quite well hidden.
We were meeting with a friend (that we met in Osaka for the danjiri festival) to have the famous Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. It varies to the Osaka-style by being less battery, and also using yaki-soba. Our friend hadn’t been in town for very long (and hadn’t eaten much okonomiyaki) so she didn’t have any suggestions. We tried finding a nearby, well-recommended one using an iPhone application called taberogu. It finds your current location, then searches for restaurants based on key search words and gives you a listing (complete with ratings/photos) of shops. The place we went to was pretty well hidden, certainly wouldn’t have found it if we didn’t have the phone/application!
I had the tried/true tama-soba-daburu (egg and a double serving of wheat noodles), Risa was more adventurous, and swapped the soba for udon (with less than spectacular results, and our friend had tama-soba-chiizu (same as mine, but with cheese). I have to say, I prefer straight Hiroshima-style over Osaka-style, but my choice would be a mix of them both. Osaka is much more filling, but I love the added yaki-soba from Hiroshima-style.
We walked around downtown for a while then headed back to our friend’s apartment just outside of Hiroshima. Our friend tried to arrange parking at her teacher’s house, but the car was just too big so I parked at a Family Mart just across the road, hoping that it would still be there in the morning (and without a fine).
52日目：広島市
今日の天気は、あいにくの雨、、、スクーターにも乗れないので、今日は、町中に駐車して、徒歩＆路面電車移動するしかないな〜。
呉から広島市内までは、４０分ほど。久々に都会の交通量の多さと渋滞にてこずった。しかも広島人の運転は荒く、いじわる！
平和記念公園に到着し、雨も降ってるしまずは、平和資料館を見学。平日にも関わらず多くの観光客（特に外国人）がいる。しばらくすると、すさまじい量の小学生団体がすさまじい騒音とともに乱入。走り、叫びまわり、展示物にものを置くから見えないし、先生もなにも注意しないし、みんなイライラしていた。 ここは、特に心安らかに静かにするべきなのにね〜。
館内は、どうして戦争が起きたのかから始まり、広島の歴史、原爆投下の背景、その後についてなどが、実際の展示物とともに説明があり、全てをじっくり見て回るのに２時間以上かかった。 焼けこげた衣服など、犠牲になった一般市民のことを思うと本当に悲しくつらい気持ちになった。全身に火傷を負って逃げる子供の蝋人形は、改装の際、以前のものがあまりにもリアルで怖いので換えられたらしい。でもリアルで怖いから事実が伝わるのにね。（小学生は、爆笑で通りすぎて行った）
資料館をでてもまだまだざんざん降りの雨。原爆ドームを見学した後は、特に市内で心惹かれるものがないので、広島に住んでいる友達の仕事が終わるのを待つのも含め、ＢＩＣカメラで買い物。その後、駅前に移動し友達と再会☆
車を駅前に停め、えびす町など街の中心部へ移動。ロス君念願の広島お好み焼きを広島で食すべく店探し！ 胡桃屋という店で、店内はお座敷のいい感じに古いお店。ロスは、豚玉そばダブル！ジャッキーは、チーズとそば、りさは、えびとうどん！ お好み焼きとうどんがセットになっているのは初めてだー。 本物（ここのお店）のは、お好み焼きの部分はすごく薄いパリパリの玉子と生地で、きゃべつの千切りがたっぷり。焼うどんは、もっちり。焼きそばと違って生地とばらばらになってしまう。 どっちかっていうと私は、大阪のお好み焼きの方がすきかな〜。
お好み焼きとジャッキーとの再会と楽しいおしゃべりの後は、ジャッキーが夜の広島の街案内。すすきののようなキャバクラ街がけっこう大きかった。人口札幌の4分の３。原爆で壊滅した街が凄まじい早さで復興を遂げたのは、まさに人々の努力と涙なんだろう。
車で、ジャッキーの住む海田市に戻る。海田は、広島中心部から３０分程。海沿いの工場地帯。 今日は、彼女のお家にお泊まりさせてもらいます☆ ありがとジャッキー♥
それでは、ぐっな〜い☆
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