Hiroshima is the a principal city of Chugaku region. It has a deep history and slightly painful mankind's history. The nuclear bomb that destructed the city and ended world war 2. Today, the place where the "Little boy" was dropped has been replaced with a museum and monument of peace.

Overall, there are two major must-see places in Hiroshima:
1. The Peace Memorial Park
2. Miyajima island

The Peace Memorial park is a 120,000 square meters park within the downtown area, surrounded by lush green trees, and striking peace monuments. Inside the park, there are three building: The A-Bomb Dome, Cenotaph and the museum.

Memorial Cenotaph

 This is the Memorial Cenotaph hoping to reconstruct the ruined Hiroshima as a peaceful city. Ex-professor of Tokyo University, Tange Kenzo, designed the monument and its saddle-shaped roof in the hope of protecting those victims from the rain. The cenotaph carries an epitaph: "Rest in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated". The central stone room carries the list of name of both domestic and overseas A-bomb victims (1).

A-Bomb Dome

A-Bomb Dome building, which was designed by a Czech architect in 1915, had been used as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. Hiroshima citizens back then loved so much European modern-style buildings of the time. In 1912, the National Confectionery Exposition was held in this place. From that exposition, Baumkuchen, which represented German cake (1)was manufactured and sold in Japan for the first time.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

The museum is rather small so you can see it within an hour or so. Inside the museum, you can see the timeline moments before and after the nuclear bomb touched Hiroshima. You could also see the remnants of things that was left from the devastating event. It was quite an experience for me. There was chill that runs in my spine, imagining how the people dealt with the sheer destruction and how they lived afterward.

Paper Crane from children from all over Japan - and the world.

How to get there

From Tokyo: Take the Shinkansen to Hiroshima station.
Tokyo and Hiroshima are connected with each other by the JR Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen. Direct Nozomi trains require about four hours to reach Hiroshima from Tokyo. By Hikari and Sakura trains, the trip takes about five hours with a transfer of trains at Shin-Osaka Station. If you have JR Pass, it already cover the shinkansen using Hikari and Sakura trains.

If you don't have JR Pass. The regular one way fare from Tokyo to Hiroshima is 18,040 yen for a non-reserved seat on any train, around 18,500 yen for a reserved seat on Hikari and Sakura trains and around 19,000 yen for a reserved seat on a Nozomi train (2).

From Hiroshima station to the memorial:
There is a bus service that runs to the Memorial Park. You can use your JR pass to (YAY JR PASS).

From Hiroshima station to Miyajima Island:
To reach the ferry port from Hiroshima Station, take the JR Sanyo Line to Miyajimaguchi Station (25 minutes, 410 yen one way, covered by the Japan Rail Pass). Alternatively, you can take tram line number 2 from central Hiroshima bound for Miyajimaguchi. The tram is slower, but costs only 260 yen one way (not covered by the Japan Rail Pass).
From Miyajimaguchi Station, it is a short walk to the ferry pier, from where ferries depart frequently for Miyajima. There are two competing ferry companies operating from this port: JR and Matsudai. Both companies' ferry rides take 10 minutes and both cost 180 yen one way. The Japan Rail Pass is valid on JR ferries.

I have the JR pass so I think, why not me coming to Hiroshima, since it is near Kyoto-Osaka (than Tokyo of course). It also bear the mark of Japan history, and it meant something for me as well.

So I arrange trip from Tokyo to Hiroshima first before coming to Osaka. I only wanted to visit the Hiroshima memorial, and the island near Hiroshima.

References:
http://visithiroshima.net/world_heritage/a-bomb_dome.html

The Great Buddha

How to get there

Train access to Kamakura. from: http://en.kamakura-info.jp/access/

• They HAVE TO be purchased outside of Japan. Buy them before you leave your country. In Indonesia you can buy it on any travel agent specialized in Japan, HIS (http://his-travel.co.id/jrpass) or Japan Railway ( http://railpass-japan.com/)
• After you buy it, you will not get the real ticket. Its a voucher that you need to change into the real ticket in Japan. You can exchange your 'voucher' ticket at Narita airport, and some big train stations (Ikebukuro, Shinjuku, Tokyo, etc)
• The expiration date of the ticket depends on when you activate it. You dont have to activate it asap. Plan accordingly. If you have 7 days ticket, then the deadline to use it is the 7th day after you activate the ticket. Say if you come on January 1 but you activate it on January 20, then the ticket will be valid for 7 days after 20th January.

JR Pass types

There are several type of JR pass based on the area and the train seat.

• JR pass based on area divided into:

1.  JR pass ( include all JR trains, shinkansen, bus and ferry in ALL parts of Japan) 
2. JR Kyushu pass ( include all JR trains, shinkansen, bus, and maybe ferry too only in Kyushu area)
3.  JR North Kyushu pass ( include all JR trains, shinkansen, bus, and maybe ferry too only in north Kyushu area)
4.  JR Hokkaido pass (include all JR trains, shinkansen, bus, and maybe ferry too only in Hokkaido area)
5. JR West Kansai pass (include all JR trains, shinkansen, bus, and maybe ferry too only in west   Kansai area)

So if you are going to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima, its way better to get JR pass. But if you are going to specific place only, its better to use specific JR pass. Its very cheap to get JR pass if you plan to go to more than 2 cities, but if for instance you only want to spend your travel in one area such as only in Tokyo or Kyoto, you might not need JR pass at all.

• JR pass based on the train seat:

1.  JR pass ordinary class: basically you can only get into Kodama, Hikari and Sakura shinkansen. 
2. JR pass green class: you can  sit in the green car train.

• So what is the difference between green car seat and ordinary seat?

Ordinary seat from japantalk.com

Green cars are in 2x2 configurations and have wider seats. They're also more likely to have electrical outlets and heated seats.

Green car seat from japantalk.com

Lol for all that matter to me is the speed and the destination I dont care if I go to the ordinary pass. Afterall, they are in the very same train.

Below is the explanation from JR website:

 JR Pass is valid on the route from Tokyo to Hiroshima and Kyoto, using the Tokaido Sanyo and Kyushu shinkansen lines. The key point is that the JR Pass is not valid on certain classes of Bullet train. There are several types of bullet train that run on the Tokaido, Sanyo and Kyushu shinkansen lines:
Kodama (Normal, stops at all stations)Hikari & Sakura (Express, stops at main stations only)Nozomi & Mizuho (Super Express, stops at very large cities only)
The JR Pass is valid on the Kodama, Hikari and Sakura types of Shinkansen, but is not valid on the Nozomi and Mizuho classes. In practice, the Hikari and Sakura bullets reach the same top speed as the Nozomi and Mizuho trains and use the same type of actual train, but stop at more stops on each route. For example, for the trip down from Tokyo to Kyoto, the Hikari service runs 15mins slower than the equivalent Nozomi service, and so for holiday travel is more than acceptable. 

2/19/2016
Depok, Indonesia

Odaiba is a man-made island in the outskirt of Tokyo. Its located near the Tokyo Bay, and its a nice place to watch sunset. From the waterfront, you could see the Rainbow Bridge. There are several landmarks you can go there.

1. In front of Diver City, there is a live-sized Gundam statue and during night time, they will play a short movie with the mall as the background, and the Gundam move accordingly. You can stare in awe or enjoy your time in Gundam cafe (I prefer standing with the crowd, taking video and just admiring the Gundam which just felt unreal for me).

Gundam Statue in Real scale (plaupla)

2. Liberty Statue
At the park near the waterfront, there is a mini statue of Liberty, which would feel interesting since it made you felt like in New York, but you're actually in Japan. Its unbelievably crowded there, especially near sunset since everyone wants to take a picture with the Liberty statue in their background.

Odaiba sunset (plaupla)

3.  Palette Town
If you're into amusement parks, then Palette Town might be just the place for you. The ferris wheel looks beautiful with at night.

Odaiba offers the theme park near Tokyo area, might be a good option for those who travels with family.

Ferris Wheel (plaupla)

Reference:
https://www.gotokyo.org/en/tourists/areas/areamap/odaiba.html

A port city, one of the old trading town in Tokyo. Minatomirai is the place that my friend suggested. It is a beautiful city, located quite far from the central Tokyo. It has Chinatown too. It reminds me of San Francisco. It's a harbor, so its near the sea. Expectedly, you could see a lot of pier and ships. The smell of salt water, not to my fancy but still I like it.

Minatomirai

There is the red brick building, which located near the port, which was interesting to look at. And there are a lot of restaurants inside, so if you come there at noon, you could use it to cool down and grab something to eat. It seems to have quite historical, though I don't know what is the history.  I will try to find out later.

The otaku town, I am actually kinda excited to there, given I am also an otaku (I appreciate anime and manga at normal level, I guess). Despite of my love towards anime and manga, when I arrived there I don't know what to do (beside fangirling at animate or when I saw Tsurumaru's cosplayer though. I felt like dying haha.)

Tsurumaru!

Maido cafe

AKB48 caffee and shop

Akiba crossing

Depok, September 16, 2015