water, water everywhere

So we got up this morning (after the extremely jet lagged Jodi took a shower at FOUR A.M.) and checked the weather in Hiroshima. Our trusty weather.com projected rain through the afternoon (which isn't unusal), but that it would warm up to 75 degrees. So off we went in our flip flops and shorts.

And let's just say that weather.com's Asian meterologists have serious calculation issues. Because that whole 75 degrees idea was no where near Hiroshima. It was rainy and cold. But three umbrella purchases later (we only had one), we made our way through Hiroshima, albeit with very wet feet.

We visited Itsukushima Shrine first (above) - a shrine that is actually in the ocean when the tide is in and appears to be floating. We were there while the tide was out so we were able to walk right up to it (with a few dozen of our favorite Japanese friends). These coins were my favorite part - visitors lodge them in the shrine for hopes of good luck. And the ocean does its best to slowly eat away at them.


By this time, we were marginally damp, but we pressed forward and headed out to the A-bomb Dome and the Peace Memorial Museum (the A-bomb museum). I'm pretty sure that I should've known about the A-bomb Dome, but as it turns out, I didn't pay much attention during World History in high school. Or college for that matter. I found the building beautiful, but in such a sad way. It is said to have rested almost directly under the atomic bomb the U.S. dropped on Hiroshima (by the way, I also did not know that the bomb actually detonates above the ground - this one 600 meters above). Much of the building's frame and dome survived the blast, and years later the building underwent preservation measures. It now stands as a memorial.


The Peace Memorial Museum is a short walk away (our flip flops had surpassed damp and we were walking on water by the time we arrived, just so you know). The museum is dedicated to the dropping of the atomic bomb, its effects, the aftermath, and the desire for a peaceful world. It was a sobering visit, to say the least. It's hard to describe really, the feeling there. You know something big, something devastating happened there, even though you know you're really not comprehending it at all. The best way to describe it is I held Jess' hand a little tighter than usual. I just wanted to grab all the people I love and never let them go.


So in a way, the cloudy skies were quite appropriate. It's a somber place, Hiroshima. I mean, they've rebuilt, their people are strong, but there are scars. And the respect you feel by walking in their world is a quiet and somber one.