Hiroshima and Miyajima

Trip Start Apr 20, 2004

Trip End Aug 28, 2005

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Flag of Japan Hiroshiima, Japan
Friday, March 11, 2005

Everyones heard the stories of devastation and seen the pictures - the A bomb dome, the statues. Hiroshima, I would have to say is the nicest Japanese city I have seen, ok, there are the harsh reminders everywhere of what happened so many years ago but today the city defiantly has a peaceful feeling to it. Maybe it was the warm sunshine cutting through the fresh winter air, the friendly locals or the feeling of space which is unusual in a Japanese city. We had an early start to catch the Nozomi shinkansan for the first time - rather exciting travelling at 250 or so km/hr watching Japan fly by out the window. After dropping our bags off and managing to find the highly recommended Indian restaurant for a curry and beer we set off to start the sightseeing. The best travel recommendation we have received yet was to make sure you visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum before doing anything else. So we made our way over through the city with a stop at the A-Bomb dome on the way. This building, the ruins of what was the Industrial Promotion Hall and the last of the buildings that wasn't flattened on the day to remain standing

A-Bomb Dome

. Now a Unesco World Heritage Site. The bomb detonated almost directly above it. We stood there probably a good 10-15 mins just looking at the remains. There were constantly people around it and a bit of a giggle - Japanese school girls taking pictures of each other on there ketai (cell phones). Across the river from the dome was the Peace Park, home to many famous statue and monuments. There were a few that stood out to me, the Childrens Peace Monument with all the paper cranes hanging around it, the flame of peace (this flame will not be extinguished until the last nuclear weapon on earth has been destroyed and has inscribed in it "Let All the Souls Here Rest in Peace:For we Shall Not Repeat Evil"), the Cenotaph for the bomb victims which has listed all the names of those who lost their lives from the bomb and the statue of Mother and Child in the Storm. The museum itself was just amazing, the most informative museum I have ever been to. The detail and graphics made it pretty emotional and sad to see but I guess there is no other way they can get across how horrific it was. Of even more concern was the section on Necular weapons today! There are still over 20,000 remaining - scary! I am now more proud than ever to say that I come from a Necular Free Country! After the museum, both feeling pretty glum, we wondered the Peace Park for a bit longer then went in search of a cool beer.
Woke to another beaut day the following day and we took a day trip out to Miyajima, an island off Hiroshima and home to the most photographed shrine in Japan - Itsukushima-jinja and its floating torii gate

Famous statue

. We got the compulsory pics of the torii and wandered the shrine. Unfortunately the shrine was still under-going rebuilding from a Typhoon which caused quite a bit of damage so it wasn't at its picture perfect best - still nice. The day was mostly just wandering around and clearing our heads. We took a walk up to the top look out point of the island where there was a great view of Hiroshima. That night back in Hiroshima we went out to find Hiroshima-yaki which is the Hiroshima version of Okonomiyaki (my favorite Japanese food!). Hiroshima-yaki is a savoury pancake like food with noodles, egg, bacon, squid, cabbage garnished with a special sauce, seaweed, mayonnaise and pickled ginger - oishi especially when washed down with a cold nama biiru or chu-hi.
The last day of our trip we walked to the Hiroshima Castle then couldn't resist some more Hiroshima-yaki for lunch. We found Okonomimura, a building with 3 floors of small okonomiyaki restaurants. Just crazy! We were welcomed with shouts of Irashaimase...dozo from all the little restaurant owners as we walked by. The tables all full with mostly business men and school kids. The owner/chef of the restaurant we sat down at was lovely lady and her daughter. With our limited Japanese and her limited English we decided to have a wee chat! She told us that on a weekend day she goes through 30 whole cabbages! By the time we had finished out lunch our Japanese vocab and conversation skills had almost run out. We made our way back to the station and back onto the shinkansan and headed for home.
What a memorable trip!