Hiroshima was largely destroyed by an atomic bomb during World War II.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park commemorates the 1945 event. In the park are the ruins of Genbaku Dome, one of the few buildings that was left standing near ground zero. Other prominent sites include Shukkei-en, a formal Japanese garden, and Hiroshima Castle, a fortress surrounded by a moat and a park.
We headed back to Kyoto from Shinjuku and then boarded the bullet train down to Hiroshima, where we were booked into the Prince Hotel for our next leg of the journey. We had asked for non smoking rooms and ours reeked of cigarettes, so they upgraded us to a bigger, better room with wonderful views of the harbour and surrounds. Michelle and Cae came to visit, and also complained of cigarette smell, so got an upgrade as well. Their room wasn’t as nice as ours, so we swapped them. In hindsight, I thought that the smoke smell may have filtered through the air conditioning ducts.
The Japanese seem to be heavy smokers and there is no issue with smoking in dining areas. We had to ask to be seated in non smoking areas, but they were only divided by a few feet and an open patterned screen so it only helped a little bit.
We had dinner in the hotel dining room that night and planned the next day’s outing to Miyajima Island.
Chris, Alison, Beryl and I decided to get up early to catch the private ferry from the Hotel jetty to the island, as it got there a couple of hours earlier than the JR Line one and saved us a shuttle ride to the train station, a train to the ferry terminal and then the ferry to the island. We walked out of the terminal and headed off towards the Torii Gate, along with the multitudes.
There are lots of Sika deer on the island and they have become over friendly with tourists, to the point of being annoying. I saw one bump an ice cream cone out of a kids hand, gulp it down and then try to get the fathers one as well. Another deer had a tug of war with a lady over a magazine or similar. She got it back, chewed over, and put it behind her back only to have a second deer grab it as she was squealing at the first one. Looked funny, but they do warn tourists not to have any paper or loose items in pockets or hands. Michelle had eaten some corn off a cob later on and was wondering where to put the rubbish, when a deer snatched it out of her hand. Problem solved.
We walked past the centuries old five story Pagoda, which is an imposing site, as is the vermillion coloured Torii Gate, sitting out in the water. The O-Torii (Grand Torii Gate), which stands in the sea about 16.8 meters in height, is among the most well known structures of Itsukushima Shrine. The current torii, which is the eighth, was erected in 1875. Torii gates are said to be the gateway between the human and spirit worlds.
We kept walking up towards the ropeway, where a gondola ride takes you up to Mt Misen. The autumn colours as we walked through the virgin forests were truly spectacular and inspiring. If you could walk through before the crowds arrived, it would be doubly so. They really packed the cable cars to maximum, so catching the view was almost impossible. The view from the top was fantastic, only being spoiled by the haze on the day.
We headed back down and prepared to travel back to Hiroshima on the JR Line ferry. We met Michelle, Cae and the rest of the family as they came out of the terminal. They had just arrived, several hours after we did, and wow, did they have a crowd to contend with. Beryl and I were talking to them for a couple of minutes and noticed Chris and Alison were not there. We headed off to the ferry, only to see them waving goodbye as it left the dock. Another ferry left 10 minutes later, so we caught them up as they waited for us at the other end.
From there, we wanted to go to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, so caught the train to Miyajima-guchi Station and then the tram to the A-Park stop. The A-Bomb Dome is the skeletal ruins of the former Industrial Promotion Hall. It was the building closest to the hypocentre of the nuclear bomb and the only one which remained at least partially standing. It was left in the condition it was after the bombing, as a memorial of the casualties.
The Children’s Peace Monument nearby is dedicated to the many children destroyed by the bomb and welled up deep emotion in me. I was reduced to tears when I saw an old man sweeping away leaves from the foot of the memorial and then step into the bushes to weep. I couldn’t stay there, as many Asian tourists were laughing and joking, not necessarily at the incident but the atmosphere didn’t hit them as it did me.
From there we walked through the large parklands to the museum, where pictures and artifacts of the horror were displayed. Again, I couldn’t stay in the museum as it was unbelievable crammed with humanity and was hot and stifling. I had to get out and wait outside for the others.
Caught the tram back to Hiroshima station and then the shuttle bus back to the hotel. It was a long day, so we were happy to finally get back to the Prince Hotel and relax a bit before dinner.