Miyajima |
Peace Park |
by Michael, Kevin, Zurn-sensei
Michael - Today we visited Hiroshima Peace Park and museum. It was very quiet and serene outside with lots of trees and flower gardens. We saw the memorial of Sadako and several thousand paper cranes kept in glass cases near the memorial. The museum itself was a very sorrowful place. There were hundreds of copies of telegrams sent by the mayor of Hiroshima suing for the disarmament of nuclear weapons. In the second half of the museum, they had preserved the disfigured organs, skin, and fingernails of the victims of radiation poisoning. There were sculptures dedicated to the victims and harrowing pictures drawn by the survivors. It was terrifying to see the results of what could happen in a nuclear war, and we all felt the sorrow of the victims of Hiroshima.
Kevin - Yesterday we went to Miyajima, an old samurai retreat island. it was a lot of fun. we took the ferry from Hiroshima over and the weather was really good, considering it was supposed to rain. When we got to the island we had to walk a little while to get to the temple on the beach.
The island was another place with hungry deer so I bought some deer food. we were able to get one deer to follow us for about a third of a mile. then with the left over food that I had, I stuck onto other members of our group while they weren't paying attention. I was hoping the deer would chase after them but it didn't work. then we got to the beach temple and it was really neat. the best part is the gate, built out on the beach about 50 yards out into the ocean, so it looks like it's standing on water when there's a high tide.
After the beach temple we walked up a hill to another temple [Daishoin], which had a lot of different things, but that was really fun. after that temple we took the ferry back over and had free time in Hiroshima for a good time.
Zurn-sensei- In Hiroshima we also had the local style of Okonomi-yaki, which is a kind of flat crepe with lots of different things in it, cooked right in front of us on a griddle we sat next to. The dish has soba noodles, crepe or pancake-type batter, bean sprouts, cabbage, bacon, spices, a fried egg and toppings like shrimp, squid and pork. Some of us also had cheese on it, Larry had grilled mochi rice cake. They finish them off with a sweet brown sauce. Everyone loved them, but it was a lot of food as you can guess. Jay did a great job by finishing all of his and then attacking the half that Anna and Emily couldn't finish. Nagai-sensei finished and also got some from other people, Michael finished his too. But Jay had basically two of them, we had to roll him out of the restaurant afterwards. A special Hiroshima treat!