Vacation in Japan - Hiroshima

The Miwajima Shrine

Hiroshima. The name alone immediately conjures up all kinds of images in my mind. The once thriving Nakajima merchant district was destroyed when the Atom Bomb was dropped in 1945 to end World War II.  Peace Memorial Park now exists on the same site.  It contains more than fifty memorials, statues, and other structures.

The Hiroshima Peace Memorial was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.

The Peace Bell
The Peace Bell is engraved with a world map, drawn without borders to symbolize unity. To ring the bell you gently tap a log against an atomic symbol on the bell.

Visitors are encouraged to ring the bell.

Jon ringing the peace bell

My friend and co-worker Jon visited Hiroshima as part of his vacation tour of Japan, which started in Osaka (see my blog post of June 12th).

We started our tour in Osaka (in the lower middle) and went west to Hiroshima
(directly left of Osaka about 2 inches on the map)

Hiroshima is located in the southwest of Japan, not far (at least on the map above) from South Korea (Coree du Sud.).

Okonomiyaki

Every location in Japan is known for a traditional dish.  In Hiroshima it is Okonomiyaki (pictured above). It looks remarkably like spaghetti in this photo, but I'll take Jon's word for it.

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savoury pancake filled with all kinds of ingredients.  From what I understand, in Japanese, okonomi means something like, "what you want" and yaki means "grilled".   You may find Okonomiyaki in other parts of Japan, but it will be different according to region.  

An Okonomiyaki grill in Hiroshima

Some okonomiyaki restaurants are do-it-yourself grills, where the customer mixes and grills the raw ingredients himself at a table fitted with a grill or hotplate.  There are also okonomiyaki diners, such as the one shown above, where the cook prepares the meal in front of the customers.

Okonomiyaki is much like a pancake, according to what I've been reading.  The batter is made of flour, grated yam, eggs and shredded cabbage and can contain all kinds of other ingredients, like meat, fish, vegetables, kimchi, or cheese.  It is sometimes referred to as a Japanese pizza, and even Japanese soul food!

Strings of Paper Cranes at Hiroshima's Peace Park

The brightly colored paper cranes, shown above, are plentiful in the Hiroshima Peace Park.  They are origami cranes and have a special meaning, as mentioned in my blog post yesterday (see Senbazuru, July 9th).

One post I read about the Peace Park said that it is a difficult and quite moving experience to visit there, and one should allow time to decompress afterwards.

I can only imagine.