Here's what a bit of Hiroshima looks like:
We stayed in a hotel called Hiroshima Grand Intelligent Hotel. With a name like that, how could we not stay there? It was a bit swish. They even had a suit of armour in the lobby:
We decided to get the heavy shit out of the way on the first day, so we started with the A-bomb dome:
While we were there, we were approached by a volunteer guide named Akemi who was hoping to practice her English on us. She was lovely and informative, and told us some interesting stuff. Like, the reason that so much of the A-bomb dome building is still standing is that the dome was covered in copper, which melted instantly under the blast. So, the hot air could rush into the building and blow all the windows out, allowing the air pressure in the building to equalise and preventing it from collapsing totally.
Akemi also showed us to this statue that survived the A-bomb:
It's a statue of Jizo the Buddhist protector of children, pregnant women and travellers. You can see statues like this in lots of places in Japan, with their little bonnets and aprons. Akemi showed us how the surfaces of this statue that were directly exposed to the blast were rough where the quartz in the granite had melted. The areas of the statue that had been shadowed from the heat blast were still polished and perfectly smooth.
After Akemi waved us off, we headed for the memorial museum. It's a very interesting place. The first half of the display covers the "capital H" history of the Hiroshima bombing. They cover stuff like the history of Hiroshima, the history of the development of the A-bomb, why Hiroshima was chosen as a target, etc. And you go "Wow, this is all interesting and educational, very sobering food for thought, etc." Then, in the second half of the museum, it's all personal stories, belongings left behind by bomb victims, pictures of people with their skin hanging off, a whole head of hair that came out all at once when someone was brushing it the week after the bomb... It gets very visceral and very personal. And you come out going "Gnah... Bluh..."
Although, in our case the effect was lessened somewhat by the HORDES OF SCHOOLCHILDREN. Or perhaps the effect was increased. They did make me want to go "GNAHARGHAGAHH".
Outside the museum, there's tree that was struck by the a-bomb blast, but then recovered and sprouted new leaves. You can see on the trunk, about half the tree was blown away, and then it regrew.
Actaully, we went for a walk past the remains of Hiroshima castle, and found a gum tree that had a sign on it saying it had been in the blast as well. But it was too dark for a decent photo. (It gets dark really early these days...)
Oh speaking of trees, another interesting the Akemi told us was that after the bomb, an appeal was sent out to all the other prefectures of Japan for trees. 6,000 trees were sent to Hiroshima. So that's why these days it's a really leafy place.
For dinner, we had some tasty Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki. It's a little different from Osaka okonomiyaki. It has a sort of pancake on the bottom.
The next day, we headed for Miyajima, an island about an hour away from Hiroshima by train and then ferry. It's the site of the famous 'floating' torii (you know, them big Japanese orangey gatey things), and lots of other templey shriney sacredy things. It's cultural 'n' shit. Also, very, very pretty and packed with tourists.
Here's the floating torii seen from the approaching ferry:
And here it is from the land:
And here it is at low tide. People like to walk up and touch it. We were too knackered by then, though:
We have a lot more photos. It's one of those things that somehow fills you with a great urge to take pictures from all angles. It is pretty cool, though. And the associated shrine is also pretty cool. It's all on stilts, over the water. You can see little fish swimming around and everything.
Moving away from the beach, there's also a big ol' mountain on Miyajima, called Mt Misen. We took a cable car up it. You go up a loooong cable car to the top:
Over forest that looks like this:
It's referred to as 'primeval' forest, since it's never been interfered with by humans (except to put a cable car in, I guess).
After the first cable car, you get on another cable car between two peaks, and you see this view:
Specky, huh? There's some excellent scenery to be seen up Mt Misen. Also some of these:
The flame in this temple has (allegedly) been going for 1200 years. It's one of the Seven Wonders of Mount Misen, which also include a very sad looking plum tree that apparently used to be a holy man's staff but took root and sprouted leaves, a hole in a rock that has water that allegedly rises and falls with the tides, and an arch made by a big rock on another big rock. And some others I can't remember because I can't find the pamphlet now. Here's Clinton under the rock arch:
We walked back down the mountain, and it was very beautiful but damn our legs ache now. Luckily, at the bottom of the mountain we found a lovely, tranquil teahouse in whic to sit and have afternoon tea. This is what Clinton had:
And I had something called zenzai, which was a kind of sweet soup of red beans, chestnuts and mochi. It was yummy:
Then we toddled back to Hiroshima Station, and hopped on the Shinkansen back to Osaka and the working week. Sigh.
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