A-bombs in Japan!

Journal #41 April 6, 2009

yeahhhH!!!! We have finally made it to Japan. This was the #1 port on my list. Well I only have 5 days in Japan so my schedule is extremely busy. Getting off the ship was pretty hard. The Japanese customs are very particular and demand a finger print and a picture of every single person on the ship. So I was prepared to be on the ship for a long time. We got to Japan around 8 and I did not get off the ship until around 11:30.

Me and my friends had planned to go to Hiroshima the first day. It was about a 2 hour train ride. But before we got on the train we had to turn in our rail pass receipt to get our rail pass tickets. The Japan Rail Pass is a pass that allows you to take at the trains from one company for free. It took us about another 2 hours to wait in line and get the pass. So finally my friends and I got the pass and headed to the train. We had to take 2 subways to get to the main train station. I can not believe how these train operated. They were right on time and when people got on and off the train they were so organized and moved so fast. Its like they practiced all the time to master getting on and off the trains.

When we got the main station we had time to grab some lunch to take on the train with us. I got some sushi which was amazing. So when we got on the train I realized that it was a bullet train. These trains run up to 180mph and are extremely smooth. I was amazed at how cool the bullet train was. I sat beside a Japanese man who talked English very well. We talked about things to do in Japan and he taught me some Japanese phrases. He was very nice.

When we got to Hiroshima we took a bus and got to the A-bomb museum in about 5 min. This area was where the first Atomic Bomb was dropped. The US dropped the bomb during WWII. I was a little nervous to go to this museum because I did not know how the Japanese people would react to Americans being there. I was quite surprised by the museum, I thought it would be very biased but it explained why the Americans did it, how we helped them, and many other explanations. We were able to see graphic photos of people who were affected by the bomb. I was very impressed with the museum. I did not know much about why we dropped the A-Bomb and now a lot of my questions are answered. When we left the museum we went to where the children’s museum was and the monument for the A-bomb. The monument was very pretty and well made.

We left Hiroshima and headed back the Kobe. We were planning on going to dinner to get some Kobe steak. We walked around the streets for a while but could not find a good restaurant. After about an hour of looking around we found a good place to eat on the 6th floor of a building. We looked at the menu and saw that it was a little overpriced but we were exhausted from walking around that we just decided to stay and eat there. We were the only ones in the place because it was about 10 at night. The restaurant was hibachi style. I chose the fillet. The cooks were so nice and they told us a lot about Japan. The food was amazing, the best so far on the trip. It was well worth the price. After stuffing our faces we left to get some sleep on the ship. We were headed to Kyoto tomorrow so we needed some sleep.

Love
Michelle