BootsnAll Travel Network



Fast for Hiroshima

When luck turns against you, and you happen to find yourself in a particular travel destination you had hoped to enjoy, but now face less than optimal conditions (like for instance it’s raining or you’re broke and starving), you should hope that this destination isn’t Hiroshima. It just might depress you.

I’ve been wanting to see Hiroshima for some time; to pay tribute to a tragic moment in human history and reflect on the action taken by my country to end a long war. I would have never guessed that I would be here under these circumstances, not able to pay 100 yen to ride the streetcar to the peace park. By this point I am extremely hungry, appeasing my grumbling stomach with a lot of water. When I arrived on foot to the A-bomb dome the site really put things in perspective for me. Although hungry, my fate is nothing compared to the 120,000 who lost their lives in a flash 61 years ago, or the survivors made to suffer through burns, radiation, and hunger. I have it easy. It was from this moment that I decided to look on my fate positively. This will be my fast for Hiroshima. I’m not going to starve in two days without food. As long as I keep drinking water I’ll be fine.

With this attitude shift came a stroke of good luck. I expected the museum to be out of my price range, but turned out to be only 50 yen, a Japanese museum bargain! I happily got my ticket, reducing my funds down to 25 yen. The museum is predictably depressing, and promotes a strong message of peace and the end to all nuclear weapons. The optimist in me sighed, the realist’s eyes rolled, and my stomach growled again. I’d seen enough of this place.

My last hope of finding food and money before the fourth was in my good friend Mayumi, at home in Shikoku over the holidays. We started playing phone tag in Hiroshima until my battery died. I am now on my way to her small home town of Sakaide, the first stop across the inland sea via the massive Seto Ohashi bridge. The plan is to get there, find a random outlet, plug in my phone, and find salvation.



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