Hiroshima

Sato-san drove me to a nearby JR station early in the morning to catch the train to Hiroshima. I ended up pulling into town around 11am. I had a bit of a problem when I arrived, though, as I had my giant duffle with me and Hiroshima station seemed to have surprisingly few lockers for baggage, all of which were already in use. So, I did what I thought was the right move and took a train to what looked like a big station two stops away from Hiroshima to find more lockers. Once I got there, I realized that the station was not big at all, and had zero lockers. I asked someone at the info desk for help, and fortunately she spoke enough English to help me out. She called up Hiroshima for me and checked where I might find more lockers there. She gave me some directions, and I grabbed a train headed back. I should also mention that a wheel on my bag had started to break in Kumamoto, and all this walking around was starting to make it worse. At some points, I was practically dragging my bag around. After walking around some more at Hiroshima, I finally found a single big locker just as someone was leaving! I grabbed it and threw my stuff in there, relieved.

I studied the map of the city for a bit and tried to figure out their system of street trolleys. I aimed to be in Kobe by nightfall, so I knew I had to focus on seeing the main things in Hiroshima I wanted to see: the A-Bomb Dome and the island of Miyajima just offshore. I hopped on a trolley headed for the center of town.

Hiroshima is a very beautiful city, with several rivers and broad tree line avenues. The beauty of the surrounding city creates a powerful contrast as you pull up alongside the A-Bomb Dome. For those wondering what this is, it is the remains of a building that used to be a industrial promotional hall that was directly underneath the detonation of the atomic bomb dropped on the city during WWII. Because all the force was from directly above, some of the walls are still standing and the steel skeleton of a dome on top also remains. Over the years, groups have preserved the building so that it looks exactly as it did right after the bombing. The building is a grotesque portrait of twisted steel, crumbling concrete and brick, surrounded by rubble. Reading the placards at the site, it's hard to know what to feel when you see the words "dropped by an American bomber" next to the ruins of this building and the photos of a completely vaporized city. I realized that this stop on my trip was going to be a little more difficult than I had thought.

During my trip I have met so many wonderful Japanese people and I have seen the great affection that American and Japanese now have for eachother's cultures. As I watched Japanese children and parents peacefully strolling around the beautiful Peace Park adjacent to the dome, it was difficult to envision how there could have ever been circumstances that prompted Japan to attack Pearl Harbor and America to use atomic bombs to kill over 150,000 innocent Japanese people. I felt sad, angry, and disgusted.

Without getting into a debate of whether or not it needed to be done, the only thing I'll say is that hopefully the memory and photos of the destruction have acted and will continue to act as a powerful deterrent to anything like this ever happening again.

The accompanying Peace Memorial Museum houses an impressively fair and balanced depiction of the circumstances surrounding the bombing. Included is everything from the first letters from Albert Einstein to the White House describing the recent discovery of atomic energy and its military implications, to military reports from the ground surveying the damage. There are exhibits describing how and why the U.S. came to the decision to use the bombs, the attempted surrender negotiations, and why Hiroshima was chosen. There are also a lot of early pictures of life in Hiroshima before it was destroyed, as well as small scale reproductions of the entire city before and after the explosion. Many artifacts have been collected from the ground, including the famous watch stopped at exactly 8:15am.

They save the part that really gets to you for the end. A room filled with about 20 small displays of recovered children's clothing, toys, or school supplies donated by families . There are twisted tricycles, crumpled lunch boxes, burned school uniforms, etc. Each display tells the story of the child that the material belonged to and how they died according to their families.

Lastly, the museum houses a large exhibit on the campaign for full nuclear disarmament. Hiroshima has become the kind of headquarters for this campaign it seems.

I walked back outside, pretty shaken up. I was soon approached by two nice Japanese women who just wanted to say "hi" and welcome me to Hiroshima. They asked where I was from and what I was doing in Japan, and thanked me for visiting this place. I told them I had tried basashi in Kumamoto and they were like, "What?! You ate that?"

As I walked through the park back towards the trolley, another older Japanese guy came up to me and welcomed me and thanked me again.

So, after all that, I was glad to hop on the ferry over to Miyajima for some more light hearted tourist activities. The view across the bay is amazing, with high mountain peaks sloping down to the water in almost every direction.

Arriving on the island, I was greeted by more wild deer, which was kind of unexpected on a small island like this. They were mostly friendly like the Nara deer, though I did see one sneak up behind a person and snatch food right out of their hand. There is a cool sort of tropical Japanese flavor to the island, with a few sandy beaches, palm trees, relaxing music being played, incredible views, lots of tourists, and delicious smells emanating from the various food stalls and restaurants.

A short walk brought me to the famous red torii gate out in the water. Seeing it is mostly thrilling just because it's such an iconic image of Japan.

There are some other picturesque structures to see as well, including a tall bright vermilion pagoda and a floating shrine on the water.

Later, I visited some of the many gift shops, several of which seem a little more unique (and expensive) than those found elsewhere. There were a couple oddities on the island as well, such as a small Transformers shrine...

... and what must be the worlds largest rice spoon.

I wish I could have stayed until sunset, but I had to get going.

I made my way back to Hiroshima station and grabbed my bags around dinner time. I purchased a meal for the ride, and boarded the Shinkansen for the 2 hr trip to Kobe.

That night, I was unable to find a hostel and had to stay in a cheap hotel, which was actually very nice. It was good to have my own place for a short time after so many hostels. I walked around the downtown at night alone for a bit to see if I could run into anything interesting, but it was getting late on a Monday night and it seemed like there wasn't much going on. I went back to my room and worked out a plan for the next day.