Semester at Sea: Japanese History in Hiroshima & Nara (Part 3)

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Continuing on our journey west across Japan, our plan was to visit Hiroshima and Nara to learn more about ancient and modern Japanese history before heading back to meet the MV Explorer in Kobe. I began my trip through Japan in Yokohama and Tokyo (which you can read about in part 1 of my Japan posts) with stops in Hakone and briefly in Kyoto (which I wrote more about in part 2 of my Japan posts).

Faster Than a Speeding Bullet (Train)

Catching the train to Hiroshima meant we had to get up early. From Kyoto, the Shinkansen bullet train only took two hours to get to Hiroshima. Semester at Sea had a tour the same day, but on buses that took five hours to get there. Hiroshima was among the most impactful places that I visited during my Semester at Sea voyage and to this day I have a hard time putting words to the experience. 

Hiroshima

The city has re-built itself to the point that one would hardly know it had been completely devastated by the atomic bomb during WWII. In stark contrast stands the Atomic-Bomb Dome which has been left in its hollowed out state. It is a silent testament to the devastation wrought that fateful morning of August 6, 1945 at 8:15am.

As we approached the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, we encountered a woman who volunteered as a free tour guide near the A-bomb dome. She spoke with us for about 30 minutes about Japanese history during WWII before introducing another gentleman from her organization who was a survivor of the bombing.

Survivor Stories

Mito Kosei told us about how his parents lived in the city, but during the war, they went to stay with his maternal grandparents in their village about 7km from Hiroshima. This was where his mother was the day of the bombing as she was four months pregnant with him at the time. However, she entered the city of Hiroshima three days following the bombing to check on their city house, not realizing there was radiation from the bomb.

He showed us his government issued certificate/book that classifies him as a class 4 survivor (those who were born during the year following the bombing). It was just amazing to hear him talk about his family members that survived the bombing. While his grandfather died within a month of the bombing, his father lived to be 92 and his mother was still alive when we spoke. You can read a more detailed account of the day of the bombing written by his mother on his blog.

Peace Memorial Museum

After we finished talking to the guides near the A-bomb Dome we continued walking to the Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Memorial Museum. It was disturbing to see how much of the city was destroyed by the bombing and the effects on the victims. Especially considering our home country’s role in this piece of Japanese history. I think everyone in our group was pretty affected by the whole experience and was quietly processing what we’d seen as we left the museum and memorial park. 

As a group we headed back to the train station where we boarded a train to Nara. It took us some time to get there since the bullet trains don’t run down to Nara. Upon arrival, our group split up with just a couple of friends and I staying in Nara that night. My picky-eating self actually enjoyed the delicious meal we had that night. Consisting of fried rice, dumplings, and a pork ramen noodle soup with seaweed at a restaurant next to our hotel, this was the closest I came to an eating adventure in Japan. Somehow we managed to find another Irish pub (don’t ask me how these things happen) after we lucked out finding a hotel with internet as well as a continental breakfast.

Exploring Nara Park

Despite dragging a bit the next morning after enjoying the Irish pub a bit too much the night before, we still managed to climb out of bed early to explore since it was our last day. We walked over to Nara Park to see the temples and the tame herd of sika deer that freely roam the park.

Vendors sell stacks of biscuits that you can feed the deer, so of course we bought biscuits and enjoyed feeding the deer. After a while, we stopped feeding the males since they were more aggressive than the females and fawns. They kept head-butting me for the biscuits (which hurt even though it was winter & they had shed their antlers). If you’re visiting during the summer when they have antlers, be careful around the males so that they don’t accidentally hurt you.

Todai-ji Temple

Continuing through the park, we worked our way towards the Todai-ji Temple which was the world’s largest wooden structure at the time it was built and still ranks among the biggest wooden buildings in the world today. It was built to house the Vairocana Buddha, also known as the DaibutsuBuddha, which is the world’s largest bronze statue of Buddha. It was an amazing sight to see, and Nara was one of my favorite places that I visited in Japan.

Last Stop: Kobe

As soon as we finished in Todai-ji Temple, we headed back to the train station to go to Kobe where the ship was docked. Instead of taking the subway straight to the ship, we decided to walk through Kobe a bit, which was a fun way to explore. My friends and I had our last lunch in Japan at McDonald’s before we headed back to the ship. Allow me to specify that one of my friends loved McDonald’s and craved it during our voyage which is why we went somewhat frequently while traveling in port. Although I will say that I think that McDonald’s (where I very rarely eat at home) has better quality food in other countries than in the USA. 

All Aboard the MV Explorer

After arriving at the port terminal where the MV Explorer was docked, we realized we had forgotten to buy stamps. Off we went on a mini misadventure looking for a post office which we never found. However, we did meet some really friendly Japanese firefighters who tried, but failed to help us find the post office. With time running short before we had to be back on the ship, we decided to just get stamps in our next port of Shanghai, China, and boarded the MV Explorer.

Observations

A friend I traveled with and I talked about observations we made throughout Japan and its people during one of our many train rides. Amongst them were how helpful people had been when we were clearly lost looking at maps in Japanese and how willing they were to try speaking to us in any English they might know. Keychains and cell phone charms seemed to be very popular as nearly every person you saw with a phone had charms on it, often several and often pretty large compared to the size of their phone. Maybe it’s just accessorizing in general as many dogs we saw were dressed up. Overall, I found the Japanese people to be very helpful and polite and a mix of traditional and modern.

I loved my time in Japan, and hope to be able to visit this beautiful country again! Lucky for me, my husband still hasn’t been so I’m hoping we visit in the next few years to explore some more.

Read more about my adventures on Semester at Sea!

Have you ever visited Japan? What was your favorite place there or if you haven’t been what places would you want to visit?