Hiroshima Trip. Day:1

Above is a picture of Oysters.

Hiroshima is known for oysters.

Yes! I went to Hiroshima over the winter break! Probably the worst way to start a post.

So some people may be wondering where hiroshima is.

I made a very awesome map for u guys. 

So I hopped on the night bus right after my zemi

and took a 12 hour long bus ride to Hiroshima city in the Hiroshima Prefecture.

The bus ride was a lot better than I expected because of how the back seats go down like a business level on a plane and there was plenty of leg space.

We also stopped by Service Areas once in a while for washroom breaks.

This is the amazing washroom vending machine.

Well u dont have to pay or click any buttons but it tells u which toilet is occupied.

(Actually its nothing like a vending machine)

Clean!

Map to tell us where in Japan we are in.

Picture of the service area that sells everything.

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And FINALLY after three washroom breaks along the way, 

I have reached hiroshima station.

 This time, I did travel to Hiroshima by myself but I met up with a friend there.

She is a very good friend of mine who is from Hiroshima.

But we met in Toronto.

And she was back for the winter break from Toronto.

So we met up in Hiroshima.

We were really happy to see each other :D

I also met up with my other exchange friend from my home university who currently lives in Nagoya.

And along with the crazy three of us (well the two girls including myself were crazy and our Nagoya guy is not so crazy) tagged along, well, who helped us navigate our way through the day was my Toronto friend's sister. 

After some tears of joy that we have finally all met we went into the city side of Hiroshima.

Cute bike for the post office people to use.

And my cute friend at the back who I cut off.

And this is the crazy spinning parking lot that is placed everywhere around stations.

The car goes on this circle wheel, spins, and then goes on this special elevator and goes somewhere.

Cute donut shop!

red, yellow, green

Subway is apparently kind of a cool place to eat out in japan.

Many signage in Japan are really nice.

If you remember the baseball games posts I made on the blog on how I participated to cheer the pro baseball teams, I was always there to cheer for Hiroshima Carp.

Yes Carp is from Hiroshima!

The shopping district.

And after walking around the streets for a while we reached our first destination of the day.

The peace memorial park (Notice the very scary font)

As most of you guys may know Japan is the only country ever attacked by an atomic bomb.

And this is the place the atomic bomb was dropped, Hiroshima.

This dome still stands here in the memory of all the people lost from the bombing and to give a shout out to the world for peace and the belief in stopping of creating atomic bombs.

A very big and spiritual tree right beside the atomic bomb dome.

Genbaku = Atomic Bomb

This was built in memories of all the children who died from the radiation and the attack of the bomb.

Sets of the thousand folded crane is hanged for the memory of the people who died. 

This is another peace monument where you can see the fire and the dome through the whole.

50 yen (60cents) to go inside the peace memorial museum.

The watch that stopped when the atomic bomb dropped.

Propaganda posters.

If you ever visit Japan, if you ever visit Hiroshima, I strongly advise you to go to this museum.

It really makes you think about war and peace.

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And after the heavy mood, 

we went to go eat some Hiroshima's Okonomiyaki. lol...

Hiroshima's Okonomiyaki is different from the one in osaka.

They don't mix all the ingredients together but grills each ingredients in a different order.

There's also some noodles in Hiroshima's Okonomiyaki.

And ah- sorry for the blurry photo but it was really good. I like how you can taste the egg more than the Osaka style Okonomiyaki.

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After becoming full, we took a ride to Miyajima. 

Miyajima is a island in Hiroshima, that has this wonderful place called itsukushima shrine 厳島神社.

Itsukushima shrine is registered as World Heritage Site and it was one of ranked in one of the top three places I wanted to visit while the stay in Japan. 

We took a ferry to the island.

Once I got to the island.

I got a little bit too excited. 

My friend who took many foreigners and outsiders to this island before said she's never seen anyone this excited. I couldn't stop taking pictures and repeating my love towards this island through the whole day lol.

The reason why this place is so amazing is...

1) They have deers! Wild deers that doesn't get scared of you even if you pat their heads.

They are too cute. I go to Nara to go see deers but deers on an island that has nice shrines and temples? 

How awesome is that? OvO

And this is the amazing torii that stands in the water.

It's so beautiful how the torii reflects the water, And the mountains you can see at the back.

Deers + torii = The best combination right after fries dipped in ice cream.

We also went inside the temple.

Monk.

Isn't the red really beautiful?

I went to Miyajima when the tides were relatively low.

We were stupid enough to write in HAWAII NOW.

It really was a beautiful place.

And then we went to eat some momiji manju.

It's a japanese snack shaped in a maple leaf form.

And this is a statue that was in the store.

On our way back we went on the ferry again.

Bye bye miyajima!

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And off we went to Yamaguchi Prefecture to go see another historical site.

This is the Kintai Bridge.

Kintai bridge is a historical wooden bridge that uses no nails.

It's really beautiful if you look at it from underneath.

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And after getting lost for several minutes and hours along the way lol

We have arrived to sanzoku.

Let me tell u this is a crazy place.

It's a restaurant but has some arcades, and it also has a temple, a hiking place, and some outside eating patio in the winter that has kotatsu, and it has ponds, and vending machines.

It's really big and u have to pay first and they deliver food to ur table.

It's a crazy place and this whole idea is very crazy but I was really entertained.

I almost felt like I accidentally stepped into the Miyazaki world of Spirited away.

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And after eating some food I ate more food at my friend's place. 

And her mom's friends were waiting for us to eat more.

Nabe! Hot pot!

Oysters!

Beer!

Cake!

Pudding!

Nomnomnom

Thanks for reading my long post.

And remember this was all done in one day!