Hiroshima - day 10

This morning we didn't set the alarm clock and finally enjoyed sleeping til we woke up by ourselves. We headed into town by streetcar and went straight to the Peace Memorial Park where we picnicked on a bench. We visited the Peace Museum which explains what Hiroshima was like before the bombing and what was left of it afterwards. It also has a bunch of stories and objects from the people that died due to the atomic bomb. It was a rather depressing museum, although very interesting and extremely crowded with people (maybe because we went on a sunday). After the museum, we walked around in the Peace Memorial Park, saw the Memorial Monument, the Peace Flame, the Children's Memorial, the Peace Bell and finally, the A-Bomb Dome, which is one of the only buildings that did not collapse during the bombing. In the park we were approached by a strange woman who it turns out wanted to convert us to Jehova's Witnesses... we obviously sent her away! After the park, we walked to the Hiroshima Castle. It is actually a reconstruction from 1958, since the original one was destroyed by the atomic bomb. It was still nice to see. We walked back to the city shopping centre and went into some shops and an arcade to play another game of Mario Kart (Pierre took his revenge this time). Then we had dinner in Okonomimura, a building in which there are tons and tons of okonomiyaki (local specialty) restaurants split over three entire floors. After dinner we walked back to the hostel.

Weather: half cloudy half sunny, but very very hot; no humidity, so no mosquitoes!