In the midst of what seemed like the end of the world, I grabbed control. I decided to be happy. I planned a 2 day road trip in 20 minutes and left less than 12 hours later.
And it. Was. Awesome!!!
It actually kind of started with my friend Sy. She said I should hang out with her, taking the train somewhere for the day. Then I said, "I wish we could just go on a quick 2 day road trip..."
Sy responded, "I'm totally down."
The rest was history! I also invited my other good friend Steph. The best part about this whole trip was that my two friends were willing to drop their lives on a dime for two days, to come with me and support me. That right there means more to me than they will ever understand. They gave me strength before I had a chance to feel like I had none left and it was absolutely amazing!
There was honestly nothing planned for this trip. The only thing that was for sure was where we were staying and visiting 3 places. We didn't plan out food, stops, we knew tolls would be pricey but had no idea what the cost would be, we didn't know about parking in the city, or time frames when visiting our places. We just jumped in the car and took off!!
Sy brought her little boy, Carson. He's 7 months old and was an absolute ANGEL on the trip. I can't say enough how amazing he was. The initial drive was 5 hours and he handled it like a champ!
Our main destination was Hiroshima. We also stopped in Iwakuni and Miyajima. I booked us what seemed to be a very very nice hotel. From the pictures, it sat on the water over looking the bay and surrounded by mountains with a view of the city. It looked gorgeous! I scored a hot deal on Priceline and then prayed it wasn't actually a dive. Hahaha. That's part of the fun though right?!
First, let me tell you about our hotel...
The road it ended up being on was very sketchy....lol. We drove through this fairly industrial area/fisherman cove type thing. My friends joked about what a "nice" hotel I may have gotten us into. When we got to the end of the road, this gigantic and prestigious hotel emerged. The people walking in and out of the hotel were dressed to the nine. We felt like mere peasants that had won a trip to the king's palace. It turned out to be a 4 star hotel that we ended up getting for next to nothing!! Truly amazing. It sat right on the bay and overlooked the water, mountains and the city of Hiroshima. It was incredible.
After exploring the hotel and checking out all it had and having drinks on the top floor, we headed to our room. It was a room with 2 beds, so we called down for a cot. Some how the guy thought I said air conditioning...anyways, he gets up to our room, we explain what we need again and he leaves. Not too long after we get a call. The guy asks who we need a cot for and I say the baby...lies...haha. He then explains he cannot provide a bed for the baby and that the guy that was just up in our room said that there were three people in there. So of course I lie and say that one of us is not staying. Stephanie was a little on the edge for a while thinking we were going to get caught but of course we didn't!
So we get up the next morning, ready to start our day. I check out of the hotel, we jump in the car and then go to exit the parking lot. We insert out ticket into the machine and the total came to 6,200Y!!! I was like what the hell?! I had 3 people behind me waiting and we didn't have the proper bills to pay it, so we make the other people back up and we re-park. I go inside, ask for validation (which I should have done before) and he hits a few buttons on his computer and all of a sudden our parking ticket is 500Y..dodged a bullet there!!! Steph thought they found out we lied about the people in our room and tacked it onto our parking but that was just ludicrous!!! We figured it out. hahaha.
Moving on!
Here are the three places we visited:
Kintaikyo Bridge
The bridge was originally construct in 1673 by Lord Kikkawa Hiroyoshi. It's been reconstructed and improved since then but it's pretty cool! Nothing much to the history of it other than that.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial
This place was insane. It was huge. It was bigger and more intense than the Nagasaki Peace Park. We visited the A-Bomb dome, which was basically where it hit. We also walked through the museum and that was really crazy. Unlike the memorial in Nagasaki, this memorial actually admitted that the Japanese attacked first. Nothing made America sound to terrible. The whole museum was more of a protest against nuclear weapons and a global movement to disarm nuclear weapons all over the world.
Half the museum was about how and why the bombing happened. The second half showed how the bomb affected the people that day and how nuclear radiation works when its exposed to humans. There was actually 3 wax figures that showed how skin was melted off bodies and dangled like loose shirts. Incredibly gross but also eye opening. The rest of the area had exhibits of kids clothes, background stories of people, and scientific facts on how radiation changes our chromosomes and how nuclear bombs work.
It was incredible. I learned a lot. It's even crazier that I've been to Pearl Harbor and both a-bomb sites in Japan. I've experienced history first hand. Not a lot of people can say they've done that.
Itsukushima
This island sits in Hiroshima Bay and is also known as Miyajima (Shrine Island). Empress Suiko is believed to have initially established the shrine but it wasn't put into its present form until 1555. This place is not very big. The whole island itself doesn't even have a freaking street light! But it does have two schools and only 2,000 people inhabit the island. You can spend just the day there or you can find a place to crash for the night! If we had more time we would have definitely stayed the night!!!
There are tons of deer there and apparently monkeys also. I assume the monkeys are up in the mountains though. I read that there are a lot of shrines on the island I think even maybe a castle. You can also climb to the top of Mt. Misen but we didn't have the time or the ability too hike. We were in the present of a 7 month old and we all know he called the shots! Haha.
When we got kind of close to the Torii gate in the water, this group of Japanese men look at us and yell, "Oh my gawwwwww!" It was hilarious!! So we yelled it back and we ended up taking a picture with them. It was the best! While we were taking a picture a deer decided to join us and that just added to the excitement.
All in all this was a fantastic trip! SO MUCH FUN!
I made a slide show...enjoy!
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