広島...パート2

April 9th-10th:

• Left: the A-bomb dome.
• Right: Heiwa-koen ("Peace Park") + Peace Museum. You'll cry if you go, but it's worth the trip. You won't think about war the same way ever again.

• Left: collections of paper cranes near a memorial to...
• Right: Sadako Sasaki

• Left: O-konomi-yaki, Hiroshima's famous local cuisine. Somewhat like a pizza, though basically none of the ingredients are the same. (Unless, of course, your one of those people who puts things on pizza that just aren't supposed to be there...) This tasty looking dish is mine; it's got egg, soba noodles and batter on the bottom, then it's topped with paper-thin sliced beef, cheese, green onions, o-konomi-yaki sauce (yes, there's a sauce specifically for this), and pickled ginger (that's the pink stuff on top). Mayonnaise is the condiment of choice for o-konomi-yaki eaters, but I opted to go without.
• Right: it was D-licious...

• Left: Kin-tai-kyo, a famous bridge and also World Heritage site. This is located in tiny, rural Iwakuni city, Yamaguchi prefecture, about 45 minutes from Hiroshima by train. Thought that if I went this far out into the countryside that I'd be able to escape all the tourists, but alas, Iwakuni is also the location of a US Marines base. There were white people everywhere.
• Right: Not only should you remove your shoes upon entering a Japanese house, but--according to old people--you should also remove them when you step onto a picnic mat...and don't just throw them over there. Line them up properly over here. Thaaat's right.

• Left: more of the Iwakuni local park area
• Right: Hagiyaki, a traditional form of Japanese pottery originating in the Hiroshima/Yamaguchi area.