Day 61 - Learning in Hiroshima

Today I got up nice and earlyish, checked in, paid, and went off to find somewhere to have a coffee before I went to see the sights. After finding a coffee shop full of fish tanks containing really cool tropical fish, I walked from the hostel to the Hiroshima Peace Museum, in the Peace Park. I took the full audio tour round all 56 exhibits, from the initial planning stages of the Manhattan project to evidence of the cancerous after-effects of the blast. There were loads of models, photos and recorded testimonials of victims of the blast (I didn't take many photos, it didn't seem appropriate and I was too caught up in the exhibits). I learnt a load of new stuff, like I didn't know that Einstein was cajoled into writing the letter to the US government recommending investigation into atomic weaponry, and also many of the most prolific scientists on the project, when it was completed, wrote a letter of protest to the US war secretary campaigning for a warning to be given to Japan prior to the bomb being detonated - this was denied. There were displays, wax model like, of victims immediately after the detonation with skin falling off, and melted eyes - in fact they used the phrase "my skin sloughed off", which made my skin crawl a bit. Some of the relics chosen were fairly gruesome too, the worst of which being the skin from the hands and the top cm or so of someones fingers, which fell off soon after the explosion. They have also kept the old Industrial Promotion Building as it was when the Bomb dropped, as a constant reminder of the horrors of war - the actual Hypocentre, however, is now a car park.

After I had a look around the rest of the park I headed off for some food (over the Aioi bridge, the actual target of the bomb) and ended up in the Sogo department store food court. I headed for an Italian buffet, as I was knackered and it seemed like the easiest thing to get, as there was minimum waiter-customer interaction necessary. The waiter did not share this opinion, and wouldn't let me go and get any food until he and the chef had explained that it was a buffet, and I should choose either Pizza or Pasta. This took about 10 minutes, and was solved by me pointing, saying "Pizza, pasta, buffet. Pizza o kudasai" and getting up and getting stuck in, much to their relief. It was ok, apart from some eel Ｉ　had in a tomato sauce which seemed to have skin both inside and out. I left the mutant eel. I came home and had a brief lie down, which accidentally turned into a 3 hour nap, rather annoyingly.