Hotel Rooms and Road Tripping

We haven't been on a road trip for over three years now and I was kind of looking forward to it.  The drive was a little rougher than I pictured before we left.  But first I want to talk about our hotel rooms.  

I thought we were planning this trip early enough but I was wrong.  It was hard to find an affordable place in Hiroshima.  They were surprisingly expensive and next to impossible to find a room for eight people.  We ended up with three tiny Air BNBs right next to each other.  

They were not great.  And while I am not picky I had a hard time sleeping because I keep thinking about the people who actually live in this apartment building.  It was also difficult because there was no place for our family to all be together.  We kept shuffling back and forth between rooms trying our hardest to be quiet for the neighbors.

Bob and I slept in different rooms and I put Tucker and Leon alone in the third room.  I made sure they locked the door and I set up the baby monitor in their room so I would hear if anything started to happen.  I was worried about the kids being alone before we went, but that didn't seem to be much of an issue when we got there.  Japan is so safe.

This was the worst of the three places we stayed it, but honestly it wasn't that bad.  We were gone the whole day anyway and it was only a few minutes walk to the Peace Park so the location was amazing.

In Japan we pay for parking, like, all the time.  It is pretty standard for us to pay to park when we are not at home: grocery shopping, cool parks, restaurants, wherever. You pay to park and sometimes you get validated sometimes you don't.

After Hiroshima we drove a few hours North toward Kyoto.  The rest stops in Japan were pretty expressive.  Each one we stopped at was just a step up from any I've seen in America.  They were pretty streamlined as well.  All the highways are toll roads so they have it set up that you can pull into a rest stop without getting off the toll road.  Once you pull up there is a nice rest stop area with food, bathrooms, and shopping and then one gas station and you jump back on the road.  No driving a mile this way or that way looking for gas or which fast food you want to stop at.

I like the nicely labels bathrooms and mini urinals even in the women's side. 

For this part of the drive I had my camera in the front seat with me and so I kept opening up the window trying to get pictures.  Tucker, who was sitting right behind me was not a fan of this.  Most of the pictures came out blurry or I was just too slow with the window to take at all, but I got a few nice shots.

The leaves were changing and it was beautiful.

Calista and Beatrix didn't do that well in the car, but I'd say they acted appropriately for their age.  Everyone else did pretty good.  In the past we had movies to watch but this time all we had were audio books.  We listened to the first two Harry Potter books.  I love the audio of those.  The voice actor does such a good job.  Of course Calista and Beatrix couldn't follow so they just sat there bored and screamed or were loud randomly.

Hiroshima

The week before our trip we learned a little bit at home about the atomic bomb and the events that lead up to it.  I wanted the kids to be aware of where we were going before we got there.  It really makes the who experience both more meaningful and memorable that way.

The first stop was the atomic bomb dome.  It was also covered in scaffolding, but we could still see it pretty well.  

Many people were coming to pay their respects.

I had to get a picture of this dog, it was cracking me up.  Who dresses their dog in not only a sweater but also a hat, glasses and a bow?  That is one well dressed pup.

We then made our was through the park.  We saw the peace bell.

The children's peace monument.

We learned the significance of 1000 paper cranes.

We walked past the flame of peace, which will stay lit until their are no more nuclear weapons on earth.  

The cenotaph for atomic bomb victims.

We wanted to go to the memorial museum next but they were staggering entrances.  So when we walked up we got a ticket to enter at 5:30.  I'm glad we were able to get in because I had no idea they were doing that and we barely were able to get a time slot before the closed.

So we took a lunch break and then headed over to Hiroshima castle.  We ate at 7/11 a ton on our trip. 

The walk was a little farther than we thought and we ended up walking for over an hour.  It was pretty cool when we finally made it to the castle.

We took our shoes off and went inside.  They had different things to look at on each floor all the way up to the top.  But no pictures inside.  Except for the designated photo spot of this cute guy.

We had just enough time to stop for a quick curry dinner before going into the museum at 5:30.  The museum was pretty depressing.  It was informative and good us to learn about.  "Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it."  But it was a little hard for me to go through.  There were many stories and pictures of the people who were killed and their families.  Beatrix and Calista were also being semi-loud.  They weren't really that loud, it just felt that way with hundreds of Japanese people around who manage to somehow not make a sound.  I think we were inside for about an hour, but Bob said he would have liked to stay and read all the signs but our children were not making that possible.