a trip to Hiroshima prefecture, and some thoughts.

at our classroom in Arida, we don't have summer vacation, so I decided to take August 5th-8th off to go to the Chugoku and Kyushu regions. (as it happens, we decided to take a week off for vacation anyhow... so no class this week!)

from the 5th-7th I stayed in Hatsukaichi city, Hiroshima. it's about a half hour train ride to Hiroshima city. I got to Hiroshima city by bus at 4:30 am on the 5th. then I went to a manga cafe and slept for 2 hours, and got washed up, etc. (the combination of night bus and manga cafe is a great trick for time-and-money-wise people travelling in Japan :)

then I went to my hostel in Miyajima, Hatsukaichi and right at 9:30 I went on a kayaking tour to Itsukushima shrine. along with Kinkakuji, it's one of those famous Japanese sights you have probably seen in a calendar.

I returned on the night of the 6th... because the ferry there and back was only 300 yen!

well, obviously the main reason I wanted to go to Hiroshima was to pay my respects to all the people who suffered during August 1945 and many years after at the hands of the American army. it was quite moving to stand at the ruins and think about the past.

this is one of Hiroshima's famous sights, the Genbaku dome. people gathered here for peace rallies and to display origami cranes.

It was beautiful to see so many people in one place, all wishing for one thing, world peace. there were people from all over the world there. One thing I was really happy to do was float a paper lantern on the river, at 6pm.

my wish was to overcome what Canadians have done to the Japanese in the past and live in peace! the atrocities of war are something we mustn't forget.