The final part of our tour was the Hiroshima Orizuru Tower. Orizuru means paper crane, which is a symbol of peace and of Hiroshima. We bought tickets (and got a discount by showing them our passports) and then headed up to get a view of the area.
The view was beautiful, however there was no way to not get the safety net in the photos. After a quick view my aunt and I ducked out to get a snack, I was starving since we’d managed to push back lunch again and were on track to skip it.
I got matcha ice cream with a Momiji Manju which is a local specificity of Hiroshima. It’s a maple leaf shaped pastry filled with red bean paste. The ice cream also included cereal on the bottom which was a surprising crunch.
Our guide also made sure we got tickets that included paper crane folding. We went down to the paper crane floor, she collected paper for us and then led us through the steps of making a crane. While mine didn’t turn out perfectly I was still pretty proud that I remembered how to make one.
Once done with our cranes were were welcomed to walk out over a glass receptacle and drop them down to add to the collection of cranes the building has going.
Then we had the option of how we wanted to go down. Elevator? Stairs? Slide? My aunt picked the slide. It wasn’t the smoothest ride, I went after her and bumped to the side a lot, it was definitely made for small children. I ended up bailing and walking the rest of the way down.
