When a tourist goes to Tokyo, it could be for any of a million reasons. When they go to Hiroshima, there is only one reason, and everyone knows it. There are many sad places on earth, but this is surely the worst of them all. World leaders, especially the present crop, should be forced to come to Hiroshima and visit the Peace Memorial Museum. Only JPY200/ea Donald and Kim, you can afford it!
The heart-rending symbol of Hiroshima, the government office immediately under the A-Bomb explosion.
Photo in the Peace Memorial Museum of the dome soon after the attack.
View of the A-Bomb dome across the eternal flame from the Hiroshima cenotaph.
There's little to be said about Hiroshima except the blindingly obvious. The A-Bomb blast dome is a sobering reminder of the horrors perpetrated in this city, but nothing can prepare you for the Peace Memorial Museum. This is housed in a new building compared to the one Mike saw 30 odd years ago, and it's rather gratifying to see that, in its new incarnation, Japanese aggression in WW2 is recognised, whereas it wasn't in the old museum.
The Inari-ohashi Bridge tramway was an escape route for terrified and injured locals in August 1945.
Memorial to children lost in the A-Bomb blast.
The museum is really an anti-war exposition, and strongly extols the virtues of global anti-proliferation negotaitions and treaties. But (following the prescribed route) it saves the worst for last, by detailing the horror and suffering endured by Hiroshima's residents, the victims of the blast. These stories, where individuals are named, their photographs shown, and what happened to them is detailed - it is unspeakable horrow you just can't gloss over.
The Peace Memorial Museum is an impressive modern argument for "no more Hiroshimas".
Tricycle belonging to an infant boy killed by the blast, buried by a grieving father, and recovered decades later.
Spectacular ceremonial Korean "Giant Drum" in Hiroshima through a sister-city arrangement with Daegu, artist King Jong Moon.
Having been blown to smithereens in 1945, nothing in Hiroshima is older than that. It is a modern bustling city built on the delta of the Ota River as it flows into Hirsoshima Bay and the Seto Inland Sea. It has wide straight boulevards and state of the art public transport. Even at peak hours, we never saw anything resembling traffic congestion.
Modern and graceful, the Ekimae-ohashi Bridge sweeps across the Enko-gawa River.
A small sightseeing boat cruises along Motoyasu-gawa River.
These water birds like to hang around the edge of the Enko-gawa River, thinking of fish no doubt.
A fine specimen, posing on the Hiroshima's river edge.
A thin inner-city shrine of many tori gates.
And it is very walkable. We did do a couple of rides on the three sightseeing loop buses (free for holders of JR Rail Passes, JPY200 per ride for others), but mostly walked around to gain a better appreciation to the street level sights.
One of Hiroshima's sightseeing buses.
Streetscape in Hiroshima's shopping district.
Protection from the weather and keeping traffic out makes for a vibrant shopping strip in Hondori Av.
No idea what this is, but it didn't appeal to us!
Fresh orange juice is the greatest attraction at this riverside cafe.
Our trip to Hiroshima did not go off without a hitch. We first caught a Thunderbird Express from Kanazawa to Shin-Osaka, but this service stopped "in the middle of nowhere" (without any explanation that we could understand, possibly another snow problem) leading to it being two hours late, so we missed our connection. We easily negotiated another reservation at the Shin-Osaka ticket office (they really know how to do this stuff!) and caught a later Sakura shinkansen to Hiroshima.
The Thunderbird Express was on time at Kanazawa but got held up for hours on the way.
Our sleek nosed Sakura shinkansen pulls into Shin-Osaka station.
Osaka and Hiroshima are back on Japan's south west, the opposite to Kanazawa, and there was no sign of any snow on this side of the country. At Hiroshima, our Gravia Hotel was attached to the railway station. From our room, we could see shinkansen's arriving and leaving. This was an excellent hotel - we were very pleased with our stay here. There seemed to be no other non-Japanese guests staying at the Gravia.
The Hotel Gravia Hiroshima is attached to the shinkansen station.
Sunset view of a shrine in the hills above Hiroshima?
View from the top floor bar at the Hiroshima Gravia Hotel.
The Gokoku Shrine within the Hiroshima Castle moat provided us with an exciting hour or two. The shrine monks were burning all the "wishes" and "arrows" collected from the New Year's celebrations. This was a carefully managed bonfire, with the monks tramping through the hot ashes to rake them in one direction, and then the other, as the progressively added more fuel. The monks seemed to wearing rubber boots which had to be hosed down frequently. They were very respectful of the fire, being very careful to keep in contained, and equally respectful of the "wishes" which obviously have to be burned completely to come true.
Sunset shot of Hiroshima Castle.
Detail of Hiroshima castle.
Ceremony at the Gokoku Shrine.
Monks from Gokoku Shrine run through the burning tributes and wishes.
A fresh batch of burnt arrows takes flame.
The Hiroshima Camera Club in attendance?
Gnarled eucalyptus tree which survived the A-Bomb blast, now carefully preserved.
Part of the Hiroshima Castle moat system.
We were lucky to stumble upon this unique ceremony, and quite a crowd of locals was on hand to watch it too. Many photographers were there - so many it looked like a camera club outing!
The pleasure of watching your okonomyaki being prepared right in front of you, with lots of artistic flair.
Lovely to watch the arrivals of bullet trains from your high up hotel room!
A thin inner-city shrine of many tori gates.
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