Hiroshima Trip

Yumi and I just got back from a week with her family in Hiroshima. It was a relaxed week and we had a mix of hanging out, family, friends, and short trips. Although Japan is a small country, it was still a 4 hour shinkansen (bullet train) ride each way from Yokohama.
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Family

We stayed with Yumi's parents and had frequent visits from her two younger nephews, Takuya and Ryoji as well as shorter visits from her sister Yukiko, brother-in-law Mitsuo, older nephew Yuta, Aunt, and 97-year-old grandmother (who apparently still enjoys dancing at the nursing home).
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Friends
I got to meet a number of Yumi's high school friends including Mariko, her husband Keichi, and their cute son Jo. We also got together to celebrate Hiromi's recent wedding with other friends Michiko and Sae. Lastly we met up with Yuko for a nice Italian meal.

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Trips

Miyajima

This was my second trip to Miyajima, the beautiful island about a 1/2 hour trip down the coast and a 15 minute ferry ride from there. It is a common custom to visit a shrine to pray on New Year's Eve and/or New Year's Day, so we were joined there by thousands, if not tens of thousands of other people. It is considered one of the three most beautiful places in Japan. It is really lovely.
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Around Hiroshima

On January 2nd, we performed another Japanese custom of visiting family graves including cleaning up around the grave, bringing flowers, and saying a short prayer. The graves actually hold the ashes generations of family members.

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Hiroshima

Yumi's parents actually live in the countryside (surrounded by beautiful mountains), in a town called Kabe. The trip into Hiroshima takes about an hour. We went into town several times including our trip to the Peace Park, in and around ground zero for the atomic bombing on August 6th, 1945. It is there where we met 2 1/2 years ago in late July, 2005. We walked around the park again. I love the monuments and memorials. We also visited the museum again which is heart-wrenching at times.