Hiroshima Mon Amour

Years ago, as a college student, I watched the movie Hiroshima Mon Amour over and over again. It appealed to my youthful infatuation with existentialism, time, memory and, of course, love. It also was my first exposure to footage of the bombing of Hiroshima in 1945 and to the perspective of the Japanese about that bombing. (It may also be one of the sources of my distress about losing my hair last year, given that the movie poignantly portrays loss of hair, both by victims of the bomb in Hiroshima and by the French woman protagonist as the result of her affair with a German soldier during WW2.) This experience undoubtedly has fueled my long time interest in visiting Hiroshima, so I made sure it was on our list of places to see during our recent whirlwind trip of Japan.

We arrived late on December 10, 2010 (Human Rights Day) in Hiroshima after spending a lovely afternoon in Okayama with our friend Noriko.  Noriko told us that her dad was stationed outside Hiroshima in Ujina when the bomb fell and his friends went into Hiroshima right afterwards on search and rescue missions.  Those men and boys got radiation sickness and cancers.  Noriko's dad was spared and later wrote a long book with Noriko about the survivors of the atomic bombing. He died a few years ago. Noriko remains a peace activist, adamantly opposed to nuclear weapons and nuclear energy.

Our taxi driver from the JR station to the Righa Royal Hotel, near the Peace Memorial Park, was an older man, originally from Hawaii with an American father and Japanese mother.  He spoke decent English and charmed us with his story of how he came to live in Japan. I kept wondering if his mother was in Hawaii during the war or whether she wound up there afterward.  It was clear from that moment that our journey to Hiroshima was a journey to the past, with shadows of ignominy of the disaster other Americans hath wrought in Japan.

In the morning, I looked out over the city from our hotel perch.  It is humbling to think that we were blocks from ground zero and 65 years ago nothing was standing for miles around other than a few buildings, most notably the structure now called the Atomic Bomb Dome (A-Bomb Dome) which was about 500 feet from ground zero.  We wandered out that morning and first looked at the Dome, a chilling site in the gray sky.  In front, a group of Japanese tourists were getting a lecture about the bombing.  The tour guide had pictures of Enola Gay; again I felt uncomfortable being an American at that moment.

A-Bomb Dome with reflection

A-Bomb Dome 

weeds and plants grow within the A-Bomb Dome

Starting in 1944, Japan conscripted children over the age of 12 to serve in support positions to the military for the war.  In the Memorial Park, there was one monument to those conscripted Japanese children who died during the war and another monument (Children's Peace Monument) for the children who died as a result of the atomic bomb including Sadako Sasaki, who died of leukemia at age 12, ten years after she lived through the atomic bombing.

Memorial Tower to Mobilized Students

Children's Peace Monument

Memorial Monument For Hiroshima City of Peace "Let all the souls here rest in peace for we shall not repeat the evil. "

The Peace Memorial Museum was chilling, particularly the photographs and the tattered clothes of those (many of whom were children) who were nearby at the time of the blast and eventually died of radiation sickness a few days later.  There was a chilling display about black rain, which people drank because the heat from the bomb made them so thirsty.  Other chilling sights were the two watches stopped at 8:16, the time in the morning of August 6, 1945 when the bomb purportedly hit.

Photo taken a few months after bombing

Photo after bombing shows epicenter of blast

Pocket Watch

Clothing of children near blast

More clothing

Glass bottles fused by heat from blast

Watch stopped at 8:16 

After lunch, we needed an emotional break so we got a taxi to Hassei, which reportedly had the best okonomiyaki in Hiroshima.  We walked a bit and came upon an outdoor shopping mall filled with Christmas shoppers and revelers.  Quite a contrast to the sadness of our morning in the Peace Memorial Park and Museum.  We sat for some time in a Starbucks and watched the holiday scene.  Life goes on and horror commingles with joy.  An interesting lesson, not unlike some of those in Hiroshima Mon Amour.

Cooking okonomiyaki at Hassei

Shopping mall in Hiroshima 

Eating in Japan- Or How I Gained Weight Despite Walking A Lot

It could have been worse.  I could have gained many pounds from all the delicious food I ate in Japan. Luckily I only gained two pounds.  It amazes me how slender most Japanese people are despite the size of the portions we were served in many of the meals we ate.  The Japanese diet is considered to be very healthy and from what I could see the Japanese walk more than most Americans do (particularly me these days).  There were some hints, however, that diet might change in Japan to be more like the garbage Americans eat.  We saw a number of people buying doughnuts from places like Krispy Kreme.  And McDonald's is making huge inroads with its oversized hamburgers.

At the same time, there are more vegetarian options in Japan than ever before.  I have been trying to be a vegetarian (sometimes I lapse) so my Japanese friends found vegetarian restaurants for us, which may not be completely representative of Japanese food but certainly were different from American vegetarian restaurants.

Our first Japanese restaurant meal in Tokyo was dinner at a Shabu Shabu restaurant on the 38th floor of the Yebisu Garden Tower near our hotel.  Unfortunately I did not get any pictures of the food there, focussing more on the fantastic views of Tokyo.  Here is a photo that looked much like what we ate.  So much for no meat!

Shabu Shabu © 2009 Bermi Ferrer Creative Commons license

The next day, after our trip to Meiji Shrine, we had lunch at the vegetarian restaurant Hanada Rosso (see also here).  I had a delicious vegetarian burger in tomato sauce with side dishes.  The chef, Minako  Hanada, is reportedly a celebrity chef in Japan.

Lunch at Hanado Rosso in Harajuku

We also had vegetarian meals at an Indian restaurant, Nataraj, in Ginza area of Tokyo and at Miko-an in downtown Kyoto.  Unfortunately I do not have pictures of what we ate at either place but both were superb.  Someone else's blog entry about Miko-an has some great pictures of the food and the restaurant. Some photos of Nataraj can be seen here.

My husband is not terribly fond of vegetarian food but he loves tofu.  The very first thing we did after arriving in Kyoto at about 2:30 pm on Monday, December 6, was to head out to find a particular tofu restaurant recommended by his friend from Kyoto and by one of our guidebooks.   Okutan is across from Nanzen-ji and must get enough tourists to prompt the sign saying "We only have Tofu course".  We did not care and were thrilled with the different ways they served tofu.

Okutan menu in english

Sesame Tofu, Yam soup, sake, tofu pot

Baked Tofu with Miso glaze

Okutan (Kyoto) interior

We tried a few specialities in places.  Nara Udon was delicious and a real find after we missed out on the restaurant where we had wanted to go because it had closed.  In Kyoto, we ate a donburi dish, a chicken and semi cooked egg over rice bowl, called oyakadon which is the speciality of the restaurant "Hisago".  We also ate sushi twice in the Kyoto train station, once in a restaurant and the other time in a sushi bar with a conveyor belt (kaiten-zushi) called Musashi.  And in Hiroshima we tried the okonomiyaki, a pancake based dish (although locals call it Japanese pizza) with vegetables, egg, fish (in my case) and a sauce which I am told can be made from ketchup, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce and mayonnaise.  It tastes better than it sounds!

Nara Udon

Chicken and egg bowl, oyakadon, which is the speciality of the restaurant "Hisago" ©Reiko Yabu 2010

Sushi and tempura in Kyoto train station

Okonomiyaki in Hiroshima- Seafood special

Then there were the cakes-- probably my real downfall in terms of causes of weight gain--although the portions were not large like they are in the US.   First, we discovered a Christmas roll cake at Starbucks that was a small green tea cake with jelly and whipped cream topping.   Why doesn't Starbucks here have something so delicious?!  The picture makes it look large but it was fairly small. We ate that a lot- splitting it with a cuppa in the evening.  Then we also tried the famous Kyoto roll and some other Kyoto cake in the train station with Kyoto siphon coffee (a great place to eat).   On the Philosopher's Path in Kyoto we shared  lovely pieces of homemade apple and blueberry cake ("my wife make them") in a restaurant called Pomme.

Christmas cake at Starbucks.  YUM!

Kyoto Roll at Kyoto station

Homemade cakes at Pomme on Philosophers Path in Kyoto

Pomme in Kyoto

Another Kyoto cake at the train station

Kyoto siphon coffee in train station

Gaining a few pounds was well worth it to eat all these scrumptious foods in Japan!