Itsukushima shrine

Day 30

We packed our bags and headed towards the bus station today to get on the bus bound for Hiroshima! After gobbling down a quick snack we were quickly rushed onto the bus and set off. The highway buses in Japan are absolutely silent! They ask you not to use your mobile phones in order to not disturb other passengers, so I got my book out and settled in for our 3 1/2 hour bus.

After 3 long and painful hours we arrived at Hiroshima bus terminal where we grabbed our backpacks and headed off to our hotel. The best way to describe our hotel is like staying inside a cigar, the whole hotel stinks of cigarettes and smoke so not the most welcoming smell after being on a stuffy bus! We were also booked into a smoking room so we left the windows open for a few hours and the smell dissipated.

We are in a great location right next to the peace park so we thought we’d wonder through the peace park for the rest of the afternoon. For those who don’t know, the peace park is MASSIVE and is full of monuments. Wondering around looking at the monuments and seeing the famous dome we found our way to the “peace pond” which was also very close to the centre of the bomb dropping point. I hadn’t felt overwhelmed with emotion until this point when I saw the flowers people had laid out and the eternal fire burning in remembrance of the victims but to also honour the survivors. It was very heavy and a few tears were shed! It’s just unimaginable the horror that Hiroshima faced when the bomb was dropped, we also went to the memorial hall which is full of rotating pictures of the casualties some of which were just children. It’s really heartbreaking and really difficult to see. I’ve been slightly putting off writing about this in my blog as it’s hard to describe how devastating and tragic this event is and how it made me feel, it’s hard to put into words.

We looked at going into the museum but the queues were insane so we decided we’d get up early to go to beat the crowds a little.

Day 31

Alarm blaring we quickly got up and out the door to make it to the memorial museum shortly after it had opened and even so there were still a lot of people! But I’m sure less than if we had gone later in the day. The museum starts with a display of what Hiroshima was like before and then after the bomb. After the bomb literally all that was standing was the famous dome everything was just in complete wreck and ruin with the landscape being purely rubble.

I think the core facts that stood out to me from the history section of the museum were…

•the bomb released the equivalent of 16 kilotonnes of TNT, that’s not even a figure I can get my head around.

•the west disgustingly nicknamed the a bomb used on Hiroshima “little boy” due to its shape and size.

• ground temperatures near the hypo centre of the bomb reached 4,000 degrees Celsius.

•the bomb killed an estimated 140,000 people but also causing long term illnesses and suspected genetic cancer so the casualties from the bomb is actually still rising.

Just those facts alone quite frankly made me feel sick to my stomach, but the exhibition that tipped me over the edge was the children’s exhibition. A tricycle, a pair of shoes, a lunch box, a text book all belonging to children killed in the blast and more distressingly many were not killed instantly and suffered a brutal few days before their bodies eventually gave up. I was in absolute floods and I just can’t comprehend how terrifying it is that we have created weapons like this and have used them. It was a really really hard museum to visit but absolutely the right thing to do.

I think that’s all I’ll say on the museum but I’m sure you can all imagine that emotions were running very high today.

We decided in order to lift the mood we should go and do something fun! So we took the boat from the peace park out to Miyajima island! We were hoping to stand outside but we had to sit inside which was a shame, as we cruised the sea we saw the island coming clearer and clearer until we docked and clambered off. It was nice to get the fresh air as we have found Hiroshima has been very smoggy and the island was definitely a breath of fresh air!

The first thing that took us by surprise was that there were deer everywhere just wondering around and completely unbothered by people which was quite lovely! Trying to leave a decent distance between us and the deer we took a few snaps and then headed around the island to see the Torii gate that was in the sea! Very similar to the one we kayaked to but obviously this one is much more popular. We climbed onto a small rickety boat with no other forgien tourists and were passed the large and rather comical on us bamboo hats! Before heading out for a better view of the torii gate, this time we were actually taken through the gate which I was surprised by as we weren’t allowed to kayak through the last one! But it did mean we got a very close up view of the rustic red gate whilst our guide gave us what I’m sure was a very interesting and in depth description in Japanese!

Having rockingly returned to the beach we walked by the large shrine which at high tide appears to float as it is on stilts! It’s a brillaint red that really shines! Walking around the back of it I yelped in delight when we saw FULLY BLOSSOMED CHERRY BLOSSOMS!!! FINALLY!!! They were absolutely beautiful! It was a great little taster of hopefully what is still to come! They are incredibly delicate little flowers and are actually more white than pink! There are different types and some are more pink than others but a few are very white! I was so over the moon that we finally saw some cherry blossoms as we have been crossing our fingers and toes to see them as the forecast was so wrong! This honestly made my entire day and I didn’t stop smiling for the rest of the day.

After catching the boat back we wondered through the peace park to enjoy it at night in the peace and quiet and then headed back to chill in our room.Read more