After Osaka we hopped on the Bullet train to Hiroshima for the next leg of the journey. This was our first experience on these trains and it was excellent. We went to the station to get our weekly ticket and actually the guys at the desk spoke fairly good English but God knows what they thought when they saw us plod along with our 6 bags. We got our ticket for Hiroshima and after Fi got her obligatory couple of dozen snaps we settled onto the train. The train ride was very comfortable and you really didn't feel the speed you were travelling at. We were a little anxious that it might not be the funnest place we have ever been to so we only booked one night's accommodation there before we would move onto Kyoto. What a mistake that turned out to be!!
We arrived with no issues and settled into our hotel. We were staying at the local holiday inn and it was here that I got my first view of a cockroach. I don't know it must be the left over radiation in the place but this thing was huge! Of course I screamed like a girl and blindly threw my shoe in the general direction of the thing. In an outcome about as likely as a pikey paying for something I managed to hit the damn thing! So after this ordeal I quickly found the nearest vending machine and had myself a lovely cold beer (again, those vending machines are quality).
Of course you don't come to Hiroshima to drink beer; well it's not the main reason anyway, so we headed down to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Or Genbaku Dome as the locals call it). The first thing we noticed on our way was the general atmosphere and look of the place. I don't know if we were expecting doom and gloom or an air of misery but the place seemed really alive. I've heard that there is a real bad vibe from places like Auschwitz and the killing fields in Cambodia where so many people died but there was nothing like that here. The place was so bright and the people were so nice and friendly. On our way to the memorial on the bus we saw this group of men in big straw round hats dancing up the street banging drums.
We got to the memorial and there is a big monument when you enter with the flame that they have lit and will continue to light until there are no more atomic bombs in existence. We had a look around the grounds and there were all sorts of memorials and plaques and monuments to different people and things. So we had a look around before we headed into the museum. There were a few clocks with references to the time that the bomb exploded and there were loads of Americans. It was a bit irrational but we found ourselves a bit angry at any Americans there, thinking that they shouldn't be here in this place. It was a bit like you would feel if you met a german in Auschwitz I guess. It soon faded though as you can't blame them for what people did 60 odd years ago. There was also a part of the place that wasn't landscaped around the clock which is the same now as it was back them just to try and give you an idea of the destruction.
Once inside, the exhibitions that they had were really something else. They had so many pictures and diagrams. They had a scale model of the area before and after the bomb went off so you could see the destruction it caused. It also had pieces of the buildings where a persons was sitting on the steps in front so all around their shadow was burned on the wall and you got some estimation as to the extent of the burn the person seated there had received. There was also some pieces where the blast was so powerful it embedded glass into the wall. There were school uniforms and in one display a young childs nails. They would grow straight out in a cylindrical shape and they had blood vessels so that for the rest of that kids short life this fingers bled when his nails were cut. It had some mock ups of what the streets around were like with dead and dying people. There were also a lot of video and audio clips that you could listen too and see these people. It also had a lot of documents from America stating why they chose Hiroshima and how they had no idea what the bomb could actually do only that it would be very destructive. They basically dropped it on a city of over a million people just cos it had a few factories and docks. There is also a wall of telegrams sent from the Mayor of Hiroshima to every nation with nuclear weapons sent out on the anniversary of the bomb. It was very moving however I was taking a picture of Fi and when she looked sad-being the concerned and loving boyfriend i asked "why the long face?". The incredulous look i got back was answer enough! (Fi here- think Rob forgot where we were and was actually glad he only said 'why the sad face' instead of shouting SMILE!)
Some of the best sites were actually outside the memorial centre, the major one called the A bomb dome. This was the old city hall which was the only thing left standing for a couple of miles. It had a large dome with lead roof tiles and all that is left is the shell of the building and the skeleton of the dome. The roof tiles were completely gone, melted away. These tiles melting point was over 4000 degrees which gave some idea of the heat that it generated. The bomb itself actually exploded before it hit the ground and hung 90 metres in the air and within less than half a second a 300 metre diameter fireball that was over 1 million degrees in temperature completely destroyed the place. The bomb didn't kill everyone though and what a lot of people (America included) didn't know was that the radiation would slowly kill people for years. So there are still stories and memorials to the people who died from poisoning. The most famous one is the children statue to Sadako Sasaki who while dying of leukaemia thought that if she made 1000 origami cranes would get better but died before she could finish so school children from all over the world make and send cranes to this monument. So it really was something to see but it was all really well done and it was more of a celebration of the people there than a depressing memorial. It was an amazing experience and one I would recommend to anyone who is travelling to Japan and we were cursing ourselves for only setting aside one night there!
But we made the most of the one night. We headed out around the city and it was an excellent night. We found somewhere that had pictures of the meals and so we were able to get some nice food and of course some beer. The next morning we headed to Itsuku-shima-jinja Shrine, located on Miyajima Island. This is a huge 900 year old shrine on an Island off Hiroshima. It has the world famous giant red arch/gate in the sea that you see on every ad/brochure for Japan. We took the ferry over and it was really nice. You could see the big red gate from some way out. When we got there we went for an old wander around and found that the place is over run with wild deer. They were cute for about 5 minutes but they followed you around looking for food which is ok when it's the little bambi like young deer but not so cute when it's the, my head belongs on a lodge wall, adult ones. Of course Fiona "Steve Irwin" Bennett wouldn't go anywhere near them so I got a few minutes entertainment watching her run away from them. We wandered around the shrine looking at some of the amazing buildings. We spent a couple of hours there before it was time to head off and get ready for our trip to Kyoto.
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