Over spring break I visited the cities of Tokyo, Hiroshima, and Nagasaki. My trip began with me taking the Shinkansen, a bullet train, for the first time towards Tokyo. It was interesting to utilize a form of transportation that I have never before needed to take. This particular trip forced me to become familiar with the navigation of the train systems, which I found to be a rewarding experience, not only because it allowed me to feel more comfortable with traveling but also because it gave me a feeling of independence even while residing in such a huge city.
In the city, I was able to visit several interesting places. The highlights for me were my journey to Mount Fuji, my experience at the Mori Digital Building Museum, and my visit to the Ueno Royal Museum. My day at Mount Fuji was quite impactful because the amount of energy in the atmosphere and the stillness I felt when looking at the views solidified my love for travel. As for the two museums I got to see, the pieces I saw also reaffirmed my appreciation for contemporary art and the creativity behind the conceptualization of such pieces.
My next stop on this trip was the city of Nagasaki. There, I visited the Atomic Bomb Museum, Peace Park, the Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum, and the Gunkanjima Digital Museum. The final place I visited in Nagasaki, the Gunkanjima Digital Museum, was especially intriguing to me because it focused on the island of Gunkanjima, a very small piece of land, so small that it is possible to walk around it in thirty minutes. Although it is deserted now, it used to be home to a community of miners and their families. Viewing the photographs taken during the island’s days of habitation incited a feeling of bittersweetness. I felt strange viewing those moments frozen in time, forever cementing the reality of what once was but is no longer.
My final stop on the trip was to the city of Hiroshima. There I managed to pay a visit to the Peace Memorial Museum and the Atomic Bomb Dome. Much like my experience at the Atomic Bomb Museum in Nagasaki, the memorials and displays commemorating the victims of the atomic bombs forced me to reflect on the impact of those events and the far-reaching repercussions of war. It was strange to see so many physical artifacts that were present at the time of such a disastrous event, an unspeakable energy embedded within them. Though I always left those places in a quiet, reflective daze, I appreciated the opportunity to pay tribute to the victims and to inform myself about the tragedy.
The constant balance and flow between sightseeing and museum visits made this spring break trip a truly unforgettable and valuable adventure.
