Hiroshima Alone Part 2

Hiroshima (Part 2)

Peach Museum

1 July 2011

After a good night sleep, the next day I went to the number one tourist attraction in Hiroshima and that is the Peace Museum. It was really sad looking at all the artifacts and exhibits. The people truly suffered a lot due to war and the after effects of the Atomic Bomb lingered on for a long time. The impact was great. Makes me wonder why there are still wars around, why don't human beings learn from mistakes? I spent a long time walking in the museum and reading the history of what happened. Depressing facts...



The fateful day, August 6, 1945, 8:15am

It wasn't depressing all the time though. I met some elementary school students on school trip. They were tasked to interview foreigners in English. I was pf course not their 1st choice, I looked too much like a Japanese. I was just standing at a corner, watching them and nodding to myself. They did a good job and memorised their introduction well. They saw me nodding away and decided to give it  try. One group walked up to me and started i troducing themselves," Hello, we are 5th graders from xxx Elementary School. We have studied English in school.  Can we ask you some questions?" They were so cute. They asked about my favourite Japanese food, which country I came from... The most difficult question would be "What is your favourite Japanese word?" I couldn't find a word at that moment, so I said "konnichiwa"... haha... silly me...After that group left, another group decided to come talk to me. It was very fun taking to the kids.

Cute interviewers...

After the Peace Musuem, I walked around the Peace Park again and met more students. This time round, they are junior high school students. They were looking and the A-Bomb Dome and sitting around, resting. As an ALT, it has become a habit for me to ask students," How are you today?" and I would expect the same answer, "I'm fine, thank you and you?" I started a conversation with them. We had a great time trying to understand eachother (broken Japanese and broken English).



Junior High School students...



I must say meeting these kids added colours to the trip.

After parting ways with these students, I went to the Tourist Information Rest House. I wanted to try Tsukemen which is suppose to be famous in Hiroshima. Tsukemen (つけ麺) is similar to ramen but the noodles are served separately from the soup – the noodles are to be dipped into the soup. The noodles are usually best served cold while the soup is hot and contains all the usual stuff like leeks, bambooshoots, diced char sui pork, etc. The one I ate as a cold spicy sauce. 

广岛名物 - つけ麺