Expedition Edition 16: Hiroshima and Himeji, Japan

Maggie and I spent two nights in Hiroshima and one in Himeji to start the home stretch of our trip. Japan is the last country we're visiting, which is a little sad to think about, but we're both looking forward to seeing our pooch again.

After our ferry from Busan landed in Fukuoka, we hopped on a Shinkansen train (the fast kind) to Hiroshima where we stayed for two nights. I had been to Hiroshima once before, but this was Maggie's first time. It's a great city and should really be considered a necessary stop for all Americans traveling to Japan.

The U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, in what I think might be the most cruel and regrettable decision our country has made in the last 100 years. It's hard to grasp the magnitude and devastation of what we did without visiting the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Museum, which may be why opinions on the bomb are still somewhat divided. I don't think they would be if we understood the effects of what we actually did to the people of this city.

Though Hiroshima is known for that one horrific event in the U.S., the city had a ton to offer. The Hiroshima Carp baseball team was in the Japan Series while we were there (unfortunately, they had road games), but Maggie and I still picked up a couple of t-shirts and settled in a bar to watch the Carp take on the hated Softbank Hawks. As of this post, the series still isn't over, but the Hawks are one win away from closing the deal.

From Hiroshima, we got on another train to Himeji to see the Himeji Castle and celebrate our four-year wedding anniversary. The castle (featured in several photos below) is beautiful, and it was also great to stroll along the grounds to see cats and carp.

That night, we had our anniversary dinner at what has been one of my favorite restaurants of this whole trip: Senju. The steak that Maggie ordered was probably one of the best steaks I'd ever tried, and I sort of (definitely) regret not ordering it for my own dish. Oh well!

We're in Kyoto now for the next few days. The photos are below. Thanks for reading!