I flew to Hiroshima with my friend Christina a couple weeks ago. Wednesday was a holiday so I took a couple other days off, and I was able to spend some time exploring the city and some beautiful surrounding cities. Christina was a really good travel buddy. She was amazingly helpful with her Japanese skills, and she booked the flight and took care of all the accommodation details. I had a really good time! Above is the famous torii gate in Miyajima. We were also able to see this and actually walk up to it during low tide.
Miyajima. There are lots of little shops and booths, and the city is famous for momiji manju (little leaf-shaped cakes filled with different flavored fillings).
Kintaikyo Bridge in Iwakuni. Apparently, it's one of the 3 famous bridges in Japan, and it is quite impressive looking. It reminds me a little of the Texas Giant at Six Flags. 
A-Bomb Dome. The bomb was dropped basically right above this dome so somehow most of it was preserved while almost everything else in the city was completely destroyed. They decided to leave the dome the way it was as a reminder of what happened and also as a reminder of the need for peace. After the devastation in Hiroshima, the city became a symbol of peace. The Peace Memorial Museum and Peace Park are really worth visiting too. To me, the city is a really sad place but also a place of a lot of hope.
Hiroshima castle. It was rebuilt in the 1950s I believe, and there's basically a whole museum inside with lots of military equipment from when the city used to be a big military city.
We also had all the famous Hiroshima food (Okonomiyaki, eel and oysters, Iwakuni zushi, and lots of yummy sweets), went to an art museum with a Japanese garden that had plum blossoms, rode the street cars (kind of like trolleys) to get from place to place, and stayed in some really nice (and nicely priced) hotels. I'm so glad I could take this trip. It's definitely a place you should visit if you have the opportunity.
