Hiroshima

This morning we left a rainy Kyoto and headed west for Hiroshima. It is a good day to leave as over 20 mm of rain is forecast for this afternoon. Nagoya, about 60 miles to the east, had serious flooding yesterday, disrupting even the shinkansen routes for a few hours. We checked out early and headed straight to the station for breakfast. Kyoto station, despite it's vast size, is so easy to navigate. Like everywhere we have been, all signs are in both Kanji and English and there are coloured lines on the concourse floors to direct you to the major intersects; shinkansen tracks, metro lines and taxis. As expected, the shinkansen train was on time and almost full, even though this route has a train every 15 to 20 minutes. Seat reservations are essential. We covered the 240 miles to Hiroshima in 96 minutes and soon left the rain far behind us.

When I booked our rooms in Hiroshima, I just assumed that the higher price tag was related to the number of visitors and increased demand for accommodation. Not so, it is just a much better hotel. It is in an excellent location and you could fit both our previous rooms into this one. It also has a happy hour from 5 till 7 (a happy 2 hours), with free drinks and nibbles. It is a bit upside down, with reception and breakfast on the top (14th) floor and the rooms on the floors below. There is a nice view across the city from the restaurant and if you look down, there is a small graveyard tucked between the high rise buildings.

There was just time to fit in a visit to the A-Bomb Domb and Peace Museum this afternoon. I have avoided Hiroshima as a destination on previous trips, but Ben was very keen to come here and I am so glad we did. The museum was very well presented and not only told the big story, but also spoke to individual tragedies, from a shadow left on stone steps where someone had been sitting waiting for the bank to open, to a tiny twisted tricycle belonging to a 3-year old child. It was not an easy visit, and after we finished the tour we sat in stunned silence, while the young Japanese schoolgirl sitting next to us wept. Trying to put the experience into words seems inadequate, but we are so grateful for having the opportunity to learn a new perspective on this horrific event.

Hiroshima has been rebuilt and the people have returned but the scars left from such an atrocity are easy to find. From the Cenotaph bearing the names of all 140,000 victims of the bomb to the Peace Flame, lit in 1964 and vowed to burn continuously until all nuclear weapons on the planet have been destroyed. Walking home along the Motoyasu-gawa river terrace, we came across a simple ceremony, part of today's Chōyō no Sekku (Chrysanthemum Festival). A small group of people offering prayers to Ten-Chi (天地, Heaven and Earth). Prayers for peace for a broken world, from a broken people. The spirit of Hiroshima.

Translated from Japanese from a leaflet we were handed:

Rebinding with the Ten
Rebinding with the Chi
Rebinding with your core and feelings
Rebinding with those who are gathered

When all colors of paint are mixed together, they become black. When all colors of light are combined, they become transparent. We can pray alone, but when we gather and pray together, our individual prayers become a collective consciousness, opening the way for the support of the universe.Read more