Hiroshima

We travelled from Kyoto to Hiroshima on Monday on the highest/fastest tier of the Shinkansen bullet train known as the Nozomi. This train seemed a lot faster than the other Shinkansen trains that we have travelled on this trip. I would presume that at times we got going as quickly as 300km per hour. The trip took 1.5 hours. Driving it would have taken 9.5 hours. It was moving so quickly that I felt a little vertiginous on our arrival.

We all know the history of Hiroshima and the dropping of the nuclear bomb on August 6, 1945 and the terrible destruction that it wrought on the people of Hiroshima. I think coming here in person really gives one the feeling of the extent of the devastation. Haroshima over the last 85 years has been rebuilt into a modern North American like city however they have left the main island beneath the epicentre of the blast as a very large memorial park with several monuments and a museum.

We hadn't booked our tickets for the Peace museum on our arrival day as we weren't quite sure what we would be up for on the first day. That was quite fortuitous as when we wandered over to the park the museum was extremely busy with tourists. It must be one of the top visited museums in Japan. We checked into getting timed tickets for the next day and decided our best bet would be at 7:30 am the next morning. We wandered around the park checking out the various monuments. The park was quite peaceful. I get the sense that many of the tourists don't stray very far from the museum. We walked along the Ota river which was very pleasant. Incredible to believe the extent of the destruction. I am sure there must be conspiracy theories on line that the bommb was never dropped and that this was a massive hoax. The Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall also known as the Atomic bomb dome was located 160 metres from the epicentre and parts of it survived to provide the iconic image associated with Hiroshima. We walked around the building. I guess it survived as it was a concrete reinforced building. It felt like looking at Big Ben, the Colosseum or the Eiffel tower. Everyone has seen a view of this building.

Thursday we were up bright and early and the first ones in line for the 7:30 opening. Surprisingly we didn't show up until 7:25. It was a very touching museum telling the stories of people who had experienced the atomic bomb, the majority of whom died. There were personal possessions of the people. The stories were grim. Within a 1000 metres of the epicenter, everyone pretty well immediately died with some survivors who were in concrete buildings. Between 1 and 2 km out people were horrifically burned. If miraculously you weren't burned you probably died of acute radiation poisoning within a few days. Beyond 2 km there were some survivors but still many people developed acute radiation illness, were burned either in the blast or subsequent fire storms. It was all rather grim. 140000 people died in Hiroshima in 1945. Many of the dead were school children who had been working in the area demolishing buildings for fire breaks for conventional bombing. Despite knowing about the atomic bomb it was very insightful to actually come to Hiroshima and take it all in.

After all this we needed a break so headed off to the Art Museum know for it's very large collection of impressionistic art. Impressionistic art always puts me in a good mood. The gallery was wonderful and had an unbelievably large collection. There must have been very wealthy business people who have left their art to the gallery. It's kind of crazy coming all the way to Hiroshima to view French art. Our only odd experience in finding the art gallery was that we came across a very very long line up of people 4-5 abreast that seemed to go on forever. They were fans of the Japanes rock band Mrs. Green Apple. It didn't make sense why they were lining up at 10 am in the morning. I finally came across a non Japanese European fan and asked her what was up. They were all in line for merchandise. The concert was that night. Crazy. The line must have been easily 2-3 hours in length.

After a 7 11 lunch, we felt that we had enough energy for one more adventure. We headed over to the Shukkein garden which was a traditional Japanese garden. It was a very large garden surrounding a large pond that contained a lot of very large Koi. Lots of great photos. We even saw a Japanese couple getting their engagement photos.

Out of curiosity I had turned my Strava on my phone. I haven't really been keeping track of steps or distance walked but we were up to 12 km and it didn't really seem like a long walk day. We decided to head back and chill at our accommodation before a 6 pm supper of okonomiyaki. okonomiyaki is a pancake cabbage and bacony thing fried up on a grill in front of you as you watch the chef from your grill side seat. There were ten grill seats in total all full. The couple sitting beside us were Swiss and on a year and a half around the world trip. They had spent 3 months in Vancouver renting a caravan for several weeks and house sitting for people with pets. It was fun listening to their travel experiences. There were some Japanese business men beside us really putting back the beers but we didn't chat with them. We walked around after supper taking in the entertainment part of town that we were staying in. In areas it was almost bordering on a Red light district . Curiously there were intermixed high end stores such as Rolex. So odd. Our Air BnN was basic but comfortable and quiet despite it's location.Read more