Hiroshima was our first ever accommodation from the Home Exchange website, but it was hardly a home exchange at all. In most cases, you swap homes with the other homeowner, or you arrange to pay for your stay with points earned when other guests stay in your home. In this case, we used points, but the family was still there, so it was more like the traditional Airbnb experience. The host picked us up from the train station. She grew up in Hawaii so had perfect English, and is in fact a tour guide with lots of knowledge of local sites and history.
The house itself was historic - aka extremely drafty with thin wood exterior walls and mostly paper screens dividing the interior. Because it was over the mountain from the epicenter of the atomic bomb, this neighborhood took very little damage. Also, it had cats!
Of course the main site to see in Hiroshima is the Peace Memorial Park. Since this time zone allows for quiet mornings, we took advantage to check it out before work. We saw the remains of the ‘Atomic Bomb Dome,’ the shell of an expo hall that is amazingly still standing directly below the hypocenter. The park also includes a clock that chimes at the time of detonation each morning, a bell for visitors to ring for peace, and a display of the ‘thousand paper cranes’ folded by schoolchildren all over Japan.
The museum was very well done, as somber and difficult to look at as you would expect.
Nearby was the reconstruction of Hiroshima Castle, including a tower, a shrine, and many trees that had survived the bombing.
During the rest of the workweek we did our best to work from the house, bundled up and often awkwardly working from bed with the heating pad on. We guzzled hot tea and were able to cook in the family kitchen.
We also got out for a few meals of course. One of Hiroshima’s specialties is Okinomiyaki - a kind of cabbage pancake. I have had one before in Kyoto, and even made a few myself at home, but Hiroshima style is different. Instead of mixing everything in a batter, it is cooked in layers - pancake batter first, then piled with cabbage, topped with pork/bacon and other toppings of your choice, udon noodles, egg, and top with sauce and bonito flakes. So good, and the best part is, you get to thaw out over this giant griddle as they cook. The pancake stays hot while you cut off portions to eat off your plate. We thought it so nice, we got it twice!
The other Hiroshima specialty is oysters. Not my favorite, as they are big plump ones that usually come steamed, grilled, smoked or fried instead of the small kind you slurp raw.
We got to see where those come from on our weekend excursion to Miyajima island. Oyster beds can be seen from the ferry, as well as the first glimpse of the main attraction, the enormous torii gate in front of Itsukushima shrine. This was an absolute highlight of Japan so far!
We arrived at higher tide, so the gate rose from the water while the shrine itself is built up on pilings. It’s a popular and very crowded site, but nothing to scare off the local deer population, obviously pretty well fed by visitors.
We escaped the crowds strolling along the next stretch of shoreline, and found a hike that goes to the peak of the mountain. There’s a cable car too, and we weren’t quite dressed for hiking, but dumb enough to walk up the ‘trail’ which was pretty much all stairs. We passed by dozens of small shrines before the payoff 360’ view where we enjoyed our grocery store sushi lunch.
We took a different route down, still all stairs but this time passing through this very different gate and elaborate temple full of unique individual statues in hats.
Finally on the way back down, we got a different view of the gate at low tide.
Hiroshima was all around a great stop! History, natural beauty, creative comfort food and a newfound appreciation for modern conveniences.
Next stop: Osaka