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Day 10: So many people…
Cathy Hiroshima. When we looked at the tours available, without question everyone knew what they wanted to do. We all wanted to visit the Peace Memorial.
The one famous structure that still remains standing, what’s left of the dome, is blocked off with wrought-iron railings and gates. What I learned was the reason so much of it remained standing was because the A-bomb detonated directly above that. If it was off just a little bit, that dome would have been destroyed by the outward blast just like everything else.
Sadako
by Megan Rodrigues
I read a story about a girl named Sadako. She was running a race at school and she fell down. The teacher called her parents to take her to the hospital. They found out that she had leukemia from the atomic bomb radiation poisoning.
Sadako was about 11 years old. In the hospital she tried to fold 1,000 cranes because her friends told her that if she folded 1,000 cranes, the gods above would grant her a wish. She died before she got to fold 1,000 cranes. I think she folded around 600 something.
It was sad to hear that she died because she was a brave girl fighting the fear of death. In the end her friends wanted to make a statue of her in the Peace Park to remember Sadako’s bravery. I visited this memorial. Sadako is standing at the top of the statue. I was glad to see the statue because now I know what it is like.
I learned that the atomic bomb was like a huge fire ball coming down from the sky and some people’s skin got torn off and it didn’t look so nice. The war was very bloody and many people died. It made me feel bad and sad. It was sort of bad that we dropped the bomb but we had to do it to stop the war. But lots of people got killed. I’m glad I learned about it because we are studying this in school.
Lissa I’ve been to Hiroshima many years ago. Two things I wanted Megan to see were Sadako and the children’s memorial, because she had read Sadako’s story in school.
Cathy We had talked about being concerned. Would this be too graphic? Our girls are quite young. It really affected all of them. Seeing the charred remains of a tricycle, knowing there was a child by this tricycle so affected Nicki.
Lissa Lists and lists of names. People couldn’t find their loved ones. Years later people were finding a pair of pants or a bag, that’s all they have left, trying to find closure with one scrap.
Cathy There were really graphic pictures of burnt bodies. Nicki and I both cried. She told me, Mommy, so many people died here. War is really bad. She kept going back to the models of what the city looked like before and then after the devastation, all flat.
Keri kept asking about the A-bomb and wondering if there was one above us. She talked about one display that counted how many bombs were around the world and which countries had the most. Even at her age, Keri realized the possible impact of all the bombs.
I think the lessons from our day in Hiroshima will stay with all of us forever.
We stayed so long at the Peace Park that it was almost time to get back. Most of us just went straight back to the ship, but Kara was on a mission. She ran out to one of the department store basements—
Lissa And oh my God, did she find for me the Kobe beef! That was so sweet of her! I was saying I can’t believe I went to Kobe and I didn’t eat Kobe beef!
So Kara said I got a big surprise for you, I found Kobe beef! I said OK, what are you going to do with it? She said I’m going to have the chef cook it up for you! So of course Kara went and got it done!
Cathy And guess what? For dinner that evening we all had Kobe beef appetizers! They didn’t cook it all the way through, kept the juices in, just added some seasoning, it was delicious!
Lissa Thank you, thank you Kara, that was so thoughtful!
Cathy Don’t say thank you, say doomo arigatoo!
Lissa I got inspired from that. I really wanted to eat Japanese food. We’d been in Japan and we had yet to have a really good Japanese meal. So Kara, Megan and I went to The Sushi Bar at Silk Road and met Seiji, the head sushi chef.
Cathy Nobu’s, you have to make a reservation for, and being that this was their inaugural sailing, it was really hard to get one, and ours wasn’t til the last night. But The Sushi Bar was first come, first served.
Lissa We got in! I was in heaven! I had wagyu beef, very tender and medium rare with a delicate shoyu sauce, I had fresh, fresh softshell crab, I had spicy tuna, I had sashimi. We had their famous yellowtail with ponzu sauce, excellent. We had rock shrimp. And it was free! Because it was on Crystal, it was all for free! It could easily have been a couple hundred dollars!
Cathy Now for the negative and positive about cruising: what I love about cruising is you get a little taste of the different ports. You see a little of some places and you know you want to come back. For me, I would have loved to have more time in Japan.
Lissa I share your sentiment, even though I’ve been to Japan several times. There were things I wanted to do but we didn’t have time, like have ramen on the street. Find a mochi store. My biggest disappointment, because I know your mom loves chestnuts, was not taking your mom to a chestnut store to buy a bag of fresh roasted chestnuts.
Cathy What I really missed was seeing cherry blossoms in bloom. People were saying, you know in a couple of weeks you’re going to see all the cherry blossoms. We saw a lot of cherry trees, but all we saw were buds on the branches. I can imagine all the blossoms would be really beautiful.
Lissa I know Kara wanted to go to an onsen.
Cathy As we sailed from Japan, heading to Shanghai, I thought well, I want to come back and spend more time here. There was a lot we didn’t get to do.
But no time to look back. I can’t wait for the next part of our trip because for me the highlights were yet to come: the terracotta warriors and the Great Wall!
Next: Kara finds her ancestral home
