ANYWAY
I would say that on the whole June has been quite a successful. I kicked off the month with a wonderful long weekend in Hiroshima and Miyajima.
I left for Hiroshima on Saturday morning and took the Shinkansen from Kobe which was about an hour's journey, and booked myself into a hotel for one night. It goes without saying that outside Japan most people associate Hiroshima with one thing and one thing only, and the bomb still has a very visible legacy. It reminded me of Kobe in a way; both places share a traumatic event in their recent past.
"Hiroshima-yaki"- Hiroshima is famous in Japan for its own take on the Japanese okonomiyaki, a fried pancake kind of thing with cabbage. It's good. The Hiroshima variation is also made with noodles hence hiroshimayaki.
view from hotel room
A-bomb dome. This building was one of the only ones left standing after the explosion despite being less than 100 metres from the hypocentre (i think it was). The building has been preserved since and is now an important symbol of hope and rebuilding for the city's people.
bridge leading to the 'peace memorial park' containing the a-bomb dome, a-bomb museum, victims memorial, a memorial for the Korean victims who died in the bomb who had forcedly been brought over to Japan for labour, and the Children's Peace Monument.
The water feature in the middle represents 8:15 on a clock, the time when the bomb landed
heiwa no ike- the pond of peace (i know that translation doesnt sound right but call it what you want!)
The box inside contains all the names of the victims which is opened and read out in a ceremony every year
The museum had many watches like this one all stopped exactly on 8.15am
The nuclear fall out created this black-coloured radioactive rain which stained all surfaces in landed on, for me of the most harrowing things I saw that day
I won't be giving my opinion here of whether I think the bomb was justified or not- the one thing we all know is that it should never be used again.
Although the scars of the a-bomb on Hiroshima were clearly visible within the Peace Memorial Park, in the rest of the city it looked like things have completely moved on and people are looking forward not back. This is not to say the event isn't within people's awareness because I'm sure it certainly still is, but there was something very admirable about how much the city had moved on from something so horrific in the space of a mere generation.
There is in fact a lot more to this city than the a-bomb, as I found out. Bustling shopping districts and vibrant entertainment quarters stood side by side with the traditional architecture. As a lover of Japanese castles I couldn't resist taking a look at the one in Hiroshima for the remaining part of the day.
On the whole I'm a big fan of Hiroshima and would like to come back again in the future if I can. Whilst remembrance is obviously important, I think its a shame that Hiroshima is so synonymous with the past when there is so much more to be admired there.
The following day I spend in a place called Miyajima. Miyajima is a small island a few miles south of Hiroshima. It is most famous for a shrine called itsukushima which is a shrine built within an inlet on stilts so it appears to be floating. The floating torii (wooden gate) is iconic in Japan and may be recognisable to many UK readers too. Miyajima is also famous for its deer which are free to roam around the island in a similar way to Nara.
stopped of for lunch where I ate...
...more hiroshimayaki!
this is the iconic torii- a similar image has no doubt popped up on many postcards and travel brochures
the tide was unfortunately out so it didn't have the illusion of floating but still beautiful
there happened to be some kind of kendo display going on inside the shrine
this has nothing to do with ikutsushima shrine but this is actually the shrine of Taira Kiyomori- a famous Japanese warlord and a name recognisable by anyone who has ever studied Japanese pre-modern history.
tea break
I went for a walk round the island after to the less crowded and touristy places such as momijidani park to soak up more of the tranquility. I then took a cable car up to the top of Mt. Mizen to try to get a view of the whole island but the fog denied me of this unfortunately.
Miyajima was right up there with Takayama and Tokyo on my favourite-places-in-Japan list. A great place to retreat to clear my mind and such.
There was a lot more I wanted to talk about in this post but I must leave it there because I need to sleep now. It'll have to wait until next time. Sorry!
Best,
Sean
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