"A Recipe for World Peace..."

The peace gates in Hiroshama
see all photos »

We left Kyoto at lunchtime and boarded the super train that is the 'Shinkansen' to take us down to Hiroshima for 24hrs. It was no mean feat to cover off some of the main sights and history in Hiroshima within 24 hrs but we were ready for the challenge with our, now, hardcore traveller status.

We stayed in another lovely, relatively cheap hotel right next to the Peace park in central Hiroshima. The park is called thus as it is where you can find all of the momuments, fountains, flowers, prayer temples and museum relating to the Atomic Bomb devastation that was inflicted upon the town in 1945. The 'A' Bomb, as it is so often called in Hiroshima, was dropped on the town by the Americans at 8.15am on August 6th, 1945 and killed over 140,000 people - some instantly and many others over the days, months and years to follow. The town is beautiful and on a warm, sunny day the Peace park felt quite serene and tranquil. There were of course, as we have now become accustomed, the many groups of Japanese school children learning about their history and heritage but otherwise there were very few other tourists about. We visited the museum that was absolutely fascinating and learnt a great deal about the events back in 1945...how the Americans came to make that decision and the consequences of the 'A' Bomb for Japan and its inhabitants. We saw the beautiful fountains and the Peace memorial that is a number of pillars with the word 'Peace' written on them in 43 different languages. We also walked through the park and saw the remnants of pretty much the only building within a 2km radius that was left standing..and even then it was a shell of the former building. This has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The stories of death from the fire, heat at the epicentre and subsequent radiation-related diseases were very upsetting and touching to read/hear about in the museum and it really hit home the power of these kind of weapons and the consequences of war. It is really important over here to fight against nuclear armament and we were even approached by another lovely group of Japanese youngsters asking our name and to have a photo with us (displaying the all-important peace sign) and then the big question....'what did we think about war and how to achieve world peace'! These kids were about 12 years old...can you imagine English kids of that age being interested about asking tourists these kind of questions! We clearly were a little taken aback and had to switch our minds from lazy traveller to political minds to be able to try and answer that one!

She even asked us to pass by Mister Donut for some freebies next time we are in town, as that is where she worked!

Memorial in Peace Park
see all photos »

In the evening we ate outside at a lovely Italian restaurant just next to the Peace park - Nick was craving some European food by then and it was actually very good...particularly to get a good glass of chardonnay!

The following morning we allowed ourselves a short lie-in until 7.30am and then got our fill from Starbucks (take away muffin and a cappuccino) before taking the street car down to Miyajima. Miyajima is about an hour out of Hiroshima and is an island that has a strong shinto link. The orange, floating torii gates of the shinto Itsukushima-Jinja shrine are the 3rd biggest tourist attraction in Japan and are indeed worth the hour journey from Hiroshima to Miyajima to be appreciated. Fortunately for us the tide was high so the gates were actually floating on the sea and not on mud as the guide book told us so often happens! We had about an hour to get the ferry over, wander amongst more random, tame deer, take some photos, watch some funky matsui dancing infront of the shrine, take some more photos and then get back to pick up our bags and head down to the train station to get our train to Tokyo - fortunately we managed to achieve this! The live Japanese music on the shamisen played whilst you wander around the temple attached to the shrine really makes you feel that you are in a very spiritual place...very eerie!

The 'A-Bomb Dome'
see all photos »

On the street car journey back we were again adopted by a lovely Japanese lady keen to practice her english on us - the people here are just so friendly and smiley and so keen to have a chat. She even asked us to pass by Mister Donut for some freebies next time we are in town, as that is where she worked!