Hiroshima and Himeji (The Two H's)

These two days were very impactful. We first went to visit Himeji and went there by a bullet train. Then when we got there we walked around. Climbing up the hill to this castle type building. It was all white and the Japanese used black cloth to cover it during the bombing and war. Now it is still white and they say it is whiter because of the paint around the walls making the building stand out!

In the building we were asked to take off our shoes, put them in a plastic bag, and put on slippers . This was a bit of a challenging process with all that I had . I filmed the process, as it happened; however, could not put the video up of myself taking off our shoes and putting the slippers on. Then we went up the building in our slippers. We walked around and up the stairs again. However each floor did not seem to have anything on it. I took some nice pictures and then made my way down the building. Then when I walked out it started to snow. It was beautiful seeing the snow and the building but a bit cold. I got a little ornament here, made out of wood, and has a picture of it of the building that we saw. It has a special meaning which I cannot wait to tell and show with my family!

After seeing the castle we headed back to the hotel to check in.

The next day was day two in the program. We had the opportunity to explore Hiroshima. But before we did that we had breakfast at the hotel. I walked down to the lobby, and entered the breakfast area. When walking in I felt at first as if I did not fit in, because my field program stood out. However, I put my bag down by a table that girls on my program, Paige and Violet were sitting at, and then went up and got breakfast. It was very different than I was used to. There was soup for breakfast, rice, a soft boiled egg, just an assortment of things. The next thing that I noticed about the hotel breakfast was the coffee machine. You had the option of selecting what type of drink you wanted, hot or cold, Mache, Chai, anything. It was amazing!!!

After breakfast we hoped on a bus, where we would then take a ferry that would to take us to the Hiroshima park. Once we got on the the ferry, it was only just a 10 minute boat ride to get to the Hiroshima park. Once we got there we hopped off, where our tour guide showed us around. Being off the boat, the first thing I wanted to do was take pictures of the beautiful scenery. There was an amazing orange and black shrine as the boat was pulling us into the Hiroshima park that we were able to see from a distance. As we continued to explore as a group, we got to another beautiful orange and black building, that you were able to walk into and around seeing the different artwork around it. However, before entering the building you had to cleanse your hands in the water just like shown in the pictures going into the field program. Additionally, we had the opportunity to see what the Japanese people do for their worries which is ( tie their receipts to an area in the building with the hope that their worries will go away) ( and to write on things similar to wooden ornaments their hopes and what they wish for). Additionally while exploring I saw some men practicing their sword techniques. Then we met up and and was dismissed to get lunch on our own.

Later we met back up and took the ferry again to meet back up with the bus. From there we then drove to a monument. While driving to the monument we had a lesson on how to make origami. Even though my origami was not the best I thought that we would have the chance to keep the origami. Yet, once we got off bus we continued to walk to the monument to get a better understanding of what we were about to see and the purpose of the origami. We were giving the origami to the monument. After seeing the monument and giving our origami that we made we then walked to the A Bomb monument. We went inside and got to walk around. It was very impactful walking around. Reading and walking around I wanted to cry but did not. Then at the end I saw some students who spoke English they had bags of origami and were bringing it to the origami monument which started when the A Bomb hit and this one girl was 2. She then started making one thousand pieces of origami and then would make a wish however when she was 10 she got diagnosed with leukemia and died before she could make the second thousand. Later we went back to the train station, to take the train back to the port where we would meet the boat. While waiting for the train, Angel and I went to find some snacks. We tried free samples, of cookies and local foods before stopping at 7/11 where I got a differently flavored Kit Kat, actually the local Hiroshima national cookie flavored Kit Kat and some other local snacks, like gummies and a milk tea for the bullet train.