We (Mayu and I) took the bus to Hiroshima Tuesday morning on 7.45, and arrived in Hiroshima within 4 hours. ( we choose to take the bus because the shinkansen was total 40.000 yen, the normal JR train 28.000yen, and the bus was only 18.000 yen for a 4 hour drive) The bus ride was okay, we slept talked listened to some music on the Ipod ( top 100 love songs haha).
When we arrived in Hiroshima, we decided to leave our bags at the station, so that we could do some sightseeing before we would go to the hotel. We walked from on the beautiful streets of Hiroshima, where we saw a lot of neon lights, and some nice shops (Hiroshima is not a really big city, and I think visiting it for 1-2 days is enough). We turned left and suddenly we saw almost out of no where the A-Bomb Dome. It looked peace full, but thinking about what have happened on this place 61 years ago made me sad (on August 6th, 1945 when a US B29 bomber 'Enola Gay' dropped the world's first atomic bomb on Hiroshima which eventually killed around 140,000 people and devastated the city). We had walked around the building, and went to the peace park right next to it where we saw the children's monument and the Peace Memorial Museum where we could see pictures, read information , and see video's from the day the bomb fell on Hiroshima. It was impressive and no word I write in here can describe how it made me feel 100%. But one thing is for sure, and that is that when you walk around in this museum, and in the peace park: you will realize what peace is, and you can smile that we are in peace but inside our minds we know that we are in constant danger because there are still so many atomic bombs in the world, and wars going on.
For everyone who is going to Japan, visiting Hiroshima is something what should be highly on your list.
In the evening we went to some building where they had 3 floors of Okonomiyaki restaurants... Hiroshima Okonomiyaki. The food was great, and watching those cooks was even better.
After this we went to the Hotel, because the day was just too hot and we were tired. The hotel wasn't very big, but we had enough space and the place was clean. The hotel stood right next to Hiroshima station so the location was just perfect. We watched some TV, talked about the day , .... , and fell asleep.
On Wednesday we went to Miyajima, and island just 40minutes away from Hiroshima center, and can be reached by ferry. The island it's main attraction is the Itsukushima Shrine with the famous torii. ( Miyajima is on the world heritage list)
Which was the main reason for us to visit this place, and I have to say that it looked beautiful. There were a lot of other temples, and shrines on the island, and especially the ones up Mt misen where amazing. We took the ropeway, and from the station we needed to walk another 30minutes up to the top ( 534meter) we had a great view over the island, and over the whole area from here. When we went down we took some foot bathing in the small river and had a lot of fun in the water. Cooling down was important because it was another hot hot hot day. We had some lunch, looked at the beautiful torii, and went home around 5 after a splendid day at Miyajima.
In the evening we went to some nice Izakaya in the center, and did some Karaoke ( which I didn't like that much because of the sound system at this karaoke center just sucks)
On Thursday we decided to take it easy, and that was needed because we were both broken from the walk up the mountain , and the hot weather from the previous day. We did some shopping, went to some ramen restaurant for lunch, did some karaoke ( again) and bought a present for Eisuke.
We left Hiroshima at 5 pm, and came home at 10. I had some wonderful days, and some great new memories of Hiroshima. Let's never forget what happen in there and enjoy life.
I am looking forward for my further trips the next years to places such as Tokyo, Nara, and maybe Okinawa.
Thanks, and I hope to write something more the upcoming weeks.
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4 comments:
Hi Dutch!
I'm glad you liked my mom's hometown--she still lives there.
Yes, the Peace Park and Itsukushima-jinja are must-sees in Hiroshima. As you said, there isn't must else to see there, but the city's A-bomb experience is something to see and is best felt during summer (because it occured in the intense heat). I went to Hiroshima every summer when I was a kid and could experience the sense of remembrance of the Bomb throughout the city during the first week of August, especially on Aug. 5, at 8:15am (I think), when every single horn and bell ring out in full blast for a minute.
My visit to the Peace Memorial Museum as a kid was such a traumatic experience (probably the exhibits were much gorier than it is now), I've never entered it since then.
Anyway, I'm just glad you went to see, especially during this time of the year! :-)
PS My family never experienced the Bomb; they settled after the war. But my aunts used to work for the US Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Hiroshima that researched on the aftereffects of the bomb (now turned over to the Japanese and operated as Genbaku Byoin).
Sounds nice.
It is good to get out,live,love and celibrate life together. The computer will still be there...
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