Woke up and had our final breakfast at Benesse House. The french toast at their little breakfast buffet had some type of delicious glaze on it I definitely wasn't losing weight this day with a bunch of tasty french toast stuffed in my face to start the morning!
Back to the ferry over to the main land and onto our first bullet train! These things are awesome they are super smooth but fun to see how fast you're moving on the ground as the world zooms by.
Arrived in Hiroshima to the Rihga Royal Hotel. The hotel had a buffet style restaurant where we at lunch and I must say it had the tastiest strawberry ice cream (see not all the food was bad! ;)). This was an upscale hotel probably the nicest hotel of our entire trip. It was clearly built back in the 90's or before it had some styling from back then but also the rooms were huge which isn't something you see on newer construction hotels even if they're nice.
We were up on the 23rd floor we had incredible views of the city. Honestly when I knew this was part of our itinerary and even up to arriving at the city I didn't realize it was such a large city. When I've told people since arriving back home that we visited Hiroshima the general question is "is the city re-built?" which is essentially the same sentiment I had heading in. It is #1 a monster city over 1 million people and 2 super stunning and beautiful I absolutely could've spent more days here.
We walked over to the nuclear bomb memorial site it was only a few blocks away from our hotel. The first thing you notice is the Genbaku Dome which is a building that survived the bomb even though detonation was only about 60 meters away. This is the beginning point of a large stretch of memorials and monuments dedicated to peace.
We then went through the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This was a heavy experience. I can only relate it as far as my experiences to the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC. Super important to see and learn about but definitely heavy and sorrowful thinking through the pain and suffering endured by these people. The attitude from the people and the message of the museum seems to be "Let's learn from this and not let it happen again" which is quite honorable. The story as well ends in resiliency I love the last picture I have in here of a couple with their first child. The re-build was swift and the city is truly amazing.
We had a bit of free time to end the afternoon before a free night on our own. Jake wanted to get a workout in so Mike joined him at the Gold's Gym next door to the hotel. I took the lazy route and chose a nap instead and boy did I miss out on the fun. Apparently in Japan your gym shoes cannot be the shoes you wear in from the street. . . you're supposed to have them in your hands. So they made both of them remove their shoes and wear loaner shoes (gross!). They both get the loaner shoes on and laced up and tied up. . . only for the crew to now take them to the locker room for them to store their original shoes. One catch, you now have to remove your loaner shoes to go into the locker room. 🤣 So they get their shoes off a second time (not so simple for our one-armed friend Mike!), put their original shoes away, and reset in the loaner shoes. Now they are required to take a blood pressure test before they'll allow them as guests to exercise in their facility. This is where I was mad at myself for not joining I admittedly have high blood pressure I'm curious if they would've allowed me to exercise period. So they finally pass their tests and start working out. They are still setup essentially in covid-style protocols with large plastic screens between each treadmill. Mike had an employee basically staring at him his entire run and made him wear the little emergency pull string.
This leads to a side comment- there were always tons of employees everywhere (at least in the big cities). We learned later from our Tokyo guide that the country cares more about employment than profits so to speak. . . they feel the economy keeps going better with everyone employed and therefore spending money back into the economy. Makes sense in theory in some ways but we noticed excess employees all the time at hotels (obviously the gym), larger restaurants, construction projects, etc. Lots of people just standing around with nothing to do. Ok back to my story.
So I hear about this experience and the next day we get back from our day and have like 40 minutes before the bus leaves for our final tour group dinner and Jake wants to get a quick workout in again. This time of course I say I'm in I want to see what the fun is about. Just Jake and me this time Mike passes. We go to the front desk of the hotel to buy our guest passes (where they had purchased yesterday). The front desk lady thinks she's doing us a favor and tells us to just buy them there at the gym (would've saved the equivalent of 10 cents to our calculations). So we walk over and walk in and try to buy passes. First problem "we don't accept credit cards sir". Frustration mounting. I happen to have barely sufficient cash on me so we realize that problem is resolved. Second problem "we need to see you ID". Fireworks 😂! Of course neither of us have our ID on us we were just in shorts and t-shirts (with gym shoes in hand mind you) we had left all our stuff over at the hotel. The front desk guy kept typing into his phone with google translate "we need to see ID or we won't let you in". We of course had not time to go back, grab ID, and return and actually have any time to do anything. Jake was on fire I was laughing that I got my own Gold's experience!
Ok, back to Hiroshima and our tour. A member of our touring group owns a minor league baseball team and he found that the Hiroshima Toyo Carp had a game that night so most of the tour group went to the game. They were hosting the Tokyo Giants. This was fun because the Tokyo Giants were staying at our hotel. When we first got off our bus at the hotel I noticed in the lobby tons of sporting equipment bags but figured it was like a college-level team or something. The next morning when I came down the elevator several players got on with us and when we walked out into the lobby there was a crowd of fans taking their pictures as they made their way to the bus.
Our little group did not go to the baseball game this was our first "free night" for a meal since basically night 1 in Kyoto and we were in a big city to boot so Mike had researched some options for us. We found "Cantina 23" which was essentially an American-style burger joint. We basically ordered the entire menu! French fries, nachos, wings, and of course delicious burgers. Fun night. Some additional pics of the walk home through Hiroshima below as well.
Last item of the day. I took a picture of the toilet in my hotel room. Can't remember if I already wrote this or not but the toilet situation in Japan is superb. Pretty much all bathrooms have bidet's. All of our nicer hotels had seat-warming toilets as well. It shocks you a bit the first time you sit down on a warm toilet-seat. That's usually a sign that you're sitting on a recently-used seat which is a very bad sign. Once you realize that's not the case it is a good sign! Very cozy. All types of pressure and temperature variances as well on these bidets! Even in most bus station stops and train stations the restrooms had toilets with bidets but universally they were clean. They didn't have garbage cans of course but they were clean!
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