Day 28 - 29 - Hiroshima / Miyajima Island
Trip Start
Oct 02, 2006
1
19
108
Trip End
Oct 01, 2007
Hiroshima, Japan
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The first great surprise of the day was taking the Shinkasen (bullet train) to Hiroshima from Osaka. These bad boys can go over 300mph and look like aeroplanes. Probably the nicest train I've been on, but the one in Germany with the bed, shower and butler might give stiff competition.
After arriving in Hiroshima we trekked on with our massive bags looking for a youth hostel. We were sure we were in the right area but where the hostel should have been there was this massive posh looking hotel. Using our new found Japanese skills - "Simasen, Youth Hostel? Oregato!" we were more than surprised to discover that the massive looking posh hotel, was in fact the youth hostel.
Inside was ridiculous - posh lighting, 9 floors, a theatre, restaurant, library and not only the nicest staff ever but really cheap and NICE rooms on the 9th floor with a city view
Adam flirting with an islander
. Youth hostels won't get better than this and its only about 15 quid a night. Not bad for Japan at all.So anyway, after checking in we headed out to see the Hiroshima memorial park, museum and ground zero.
Heavy stuff.
The museum was brilliant, one of the most interesting and informative I've ever been to. I know a lot more now about nukes, h bombs and Hiroshima than i did before. The imagery and artifacts were really shocking and brutal, but the whole thing had a positive sense of 'look what we went through, look at us now'. Apparently 3 days after the bomb, the tram systems were already up and running to collect the injured and dead - this has made the Hiroshima tram a national symbol. 125,000 survivors still live in Hiroshima and it was incredible to see what they have lived through.
Walking through the beautiful park we visited Hiroshima's own ground zero - a building made from concrete that the bomb exploded almost 600m directly above and yet it stands tall today. They have left it in the same condition as a memorial of what happened.
The one disadvantage to the hostel is the 12 midnight curfew, and the lack of internet. We walked around central Hiroshima for a bit, a thriving modern city similar in a lot of ways to Osaka... Caught a movie ('Stoned' - all about Brian Jones and the Stones) then headed home to beat curfew.
Dinner time. Tasty squid.
Day 29 - Miyajima Island, Itsukushima Shrine
Using our super handy JR railpass, we headed to the sacred and divine island of Miyajima for about 300(pound fifty) including the 25km journey to the shore, and the ferry crossing. Amazing!
The pictures tell most of the story of this brilliant island, but the first impression was of the Deer. They roam as free as tame house cats and were not scared to say hello - it was completely weird to be stroking and feeding wild Deer.
We walked through the island visiting small shops selling extremely Japanese gifts, temples, shrines before reaching Itsukushima Shrine, made up of 280m of hallway and 20 rooms, all over water - it was really beautiful.
The water gate, leading to the shrine was perhaps the most beautiful thing on the island however. We timed it just right to get there for sunset and you can see from the pictures how amazing this was
Faster than a speeding bullet
.After heading back to town and booking our train ticket to Takamatsu tomorrow, we went for dinner in central Hiroshima. And what a dinner! Fried squid, rice, miso soup, noodles, salads, freshly squeezed Japanese grapefruit juice - it was amazing and all for about 7 quid. I love Japan. Have i said that before?
And now we're in an internet cafe, killing three hours before midnight curfew.
I love Japan.
