I didn’t sleep all that well on the futon because I was just uncomfortable under all those layers. I think it was also pretty warm than night. We turned the air conditioner unit on, but I think it had a timer so it shut off in the middle of the night. Man, I missed my own bed that night. We woke up early and headed up to the breakfast buffet. The buffet wasn’t all that bad, but it definitely catered more to the Japanese palate. I was able to find enough items to eat, for sure. Maybe I can say that I felt like something was missing. Maybe I was just missing having something like a greasy North American type meal, full of protein and fat. Hard to put my finger on what it was.

Anyway, that day it was only the two of us travelling together. We lugged our heavy bags back up the road to the Beppu train station. As I was waiting for the train I noticed that the announcement for Beppu station was really tonal. The second syllable was high and emphasized like the lady was singing. So, it was like: “be-PPU! be-PPU!” I don’t know why I found that amusing.

Since we were late making reservations the train from Beppu to Kokura was already fully booked. We were hoping the non-reserved cars wouldn’t be packed, but we had no such luck. So for an hour or so we had to stand on the rocking car. We were able to get seats from Kokura to Hiroshima though which was fortunate.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure what to expect at all heading into the city. I mean, I knew there was a living, breathing city there. People would be going about their business and it’d be no different than any other place. Except, would there be a sense of unease? Would there just be this weird aura surrounding the people? Well, for the most part, I didn’t feel any of that.

The streetcar stop at Hiroshima station was packed. There were tons of school kids and a good sized bunch of American tourists. There’s a stop specifically for the Atomic Bomb Dome. On the way there I fell into contemplative silence. My father was still a really young child in the Philippines when all of this was happening so I was wondering if any of what happened filtered back to him when he was a child. So much to think about. When I stepped off the streetcar and walked over to the park, all I could feel was a big “whoa…” There it was. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial. There are no words. There really aren’t. People were taking pictures all over the place, but they too were silent.

My friend had already seen the museum, so I went off on my own to soak it all in. I passed by the Memorial Cenotaph and observed a couple of people offering prayers in front of it for the deceased.

The museum was very interesting and informative. It was also very sombre. It’s not meant to be a happy place, right? The first part was interesting in that it showed some of Hiroshima’s history as a military base of sorts. I mean, there are reasons why Hiroshima was chosen as a site for the bomb. Further into the museum there were exhibits showing various artifacts–clothing from those that died, warped tiles, hair that fell off from those who fell sick afterwards…it all made my mind race with so many thoughts–so many conflicting thoughts. The content was heavy. It all made me feel heavy.

Well, after all of that, I met up with my friend at the train station. We were soon off for Kobe. I told him how the content of what I’d seen was all so very heavy. He just told me that I could lighten my mood once more with some steak. Indeed! We got off at Shin-Kobe station, dropped off our bags and started searching for a specific restaurant. It was recommended to us by the other two that travelled with us earlier. After a short walk, we made it to the subway station that it was near. From there we started our hunt. Man, it seems like too many of my restaurant stories involve at least an hour of walking. Ugh! We had a few clues. It was supposed to be near the station, near a shrine and near a Starbucks. Even with all that info we didn’t spot it for so long. I managed to spot the Starbucks after what seemed like forever, and from there, we found the place pretty easily: Mouriya/МОРЯ/モーリヤ.

Sure, there’s a lot of fuss over Kobe beef. Oh, of course, you wonder what all the fuss is about. Is it really worth all the hype? My friends, yes, it is. Holy crap. That was an amazing meal. We ordered 230g sirloin steaks. We lucked out and got seats right at the grill, so we saw the chefs prepare everything. They offered suggestions on how to enjoy the meat. The meat itself is so ridiculously tender. It almost feels like it just falls apart in your mouth. It’s just so damn good! It’s no wonder it’s all so expensive. In the end we spent about $130 each, but we didn’t mind. We called this our splurge meal for the week. Well worth it.

God, what a way to end the week long tour. Awesome, awesome, awesome. We walked back up to the station. We went to the ticket counter and spotted a train leaving in 12 minutes for Tokyo. We requested seats for that train. The ticket guy took our passed and stamped the insides, pretty much signalling that the power of the pass was now null and void. It was a sad moment. Once out tickets were issued, we started running through the station just to fetch our bags and scrambled for the train. All was well. We landed back in Tokyo a bit past 10:30 pm or so.

Thus ended out whirlwind tour. I’ve still got about three days in Tokyo that I’d like to talk about though, so…more to come, I guess!