Miyajima & Hiroshima, a guest post by Eddie

Day: 15

Location: Shinkansen between Hiroshima and Nara

As much as I feel I should write from my head and not my stomach, I feel like I have no choice but to begin by describing the lunch we just ate: fresh sushi and sashimi prepared – as we watched – by a lovely husband and wife, and consumed as we rocket along on a bullet train from Hiroshima to Osaka. Yum.

Having spent this morning exploring Hiroshima, we are on our way to Nara for the Wakakusa Yamayaki festival tonight, during which Mount Wakakusa is set on fire. Sounds like the rest of Australia Day will be a fascinating experience. We made it out of bed early this morning in order to explore the somewhat sobering Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. We saw the AtomicBomb Dome, the restored remnants of the domed Hiroshima Prefectural Commercial Exhibition Hall – a symbol of Hiroshima which today aims to convey the horror of nuclear weapons and appeals for world peace. A lot of effort has been put into keeping it in the condition it was in directly after the bombing to remind everyone of the devastation that was caused.

We crossed the Motoyasu-gawa River to explore the Peace Memorial Park, which contained an eternal flame and cenotaph for the A-bomb victims, in addition a beautiful memorial for the children who were killed in the wake of the bomb. The cenotaph, eternal flame, and indeed the museum itself are cleverly aligned so that the A-bomb dome can be seen directly through them, and this clever design by renowned Japanese architect Kenzo Tange reminded me of the way Melbourne’s very own Shrine sits atop a hill, visible from Swanston St in the CBD.

We spent time reading and reflecting in the Peace Memorial Hall for victims of the bombing, also a cleverly designed building with a central focus on a fountain signifying 8.15am as the time of the attack. From this fountain, we were surrounded by a 360° mosaic panorama of exactly how Hiroshima looked after the explosion from its hypocentre. We moved on to the Peace Memorial Museum, where we had a lovely tour guide called Senji, who, despite his limited English, made a 150% effort to explain everything possible about the museum and its contents. He even had some of the tour instructions transliterated into Japanese to help him remember the pronunciations and he became, at times, quite distressed when his English infringed upon his clear enthusiasm and passion for Hiroshima and its story. The museum contained information about the Hiroshima bombing and its context, maps and relics from directly after the bombing and images which depicted the true devastation of the attack. Hiroshima, as a city, is clearly an advocate for nuclear disarmament and world peace – as can be evidenced by the now 602 letters of protest which Hiroshima mayors have sent to world leaders who have conducted nuclear testing in their countries.

Letters of Protest

Yesterday we ventured to Miyajima, an island about 30km southwest of Hiroshima. Although our plans in the morning went somewhat amiss, we were lucky to have fantastic weather, which provided for a beautiful afternoon. Ben’s increasing affinity for the snooze button led to us sleeping in more than an extra hour (my phone was out of battery so I couldn’t set my alarm), and in my subsequent attempts to rush for the train, we managed to catch a train on the correct line but heading in the wrong direction. Once we were on the train (we didn’t realise it was going the wrong way), Ben fell promptly asleep, and so, when after 35 minutes we hadn’t reached the station we should have reached in 27 minutes, I (finally) asked a local for help, who directed us to swap to a train heading in the opposite direction. As you’ve probably realised, what seems like a small error managed to cost us an hour and a half, by the time we had waited for a return train…

Anyway, we finally made it onto the 10-minute ferry for Miyajima by 1pm (having intended to get up at 7am and be there around 10am).

Oh deer.

We were greeted on the island by some friendly deer and some birds of prey, and after having a quick look around we decided we’d head to the top of the island’s Mt Misen to make the most of the good weather. 

In-flight entertainment

On the way, by complete coincidence, we ran into our freshly-onsened British/Welsh-West-Australian friends Jake and Christian from Kyoto, who – as seems to be the case with a number of our fellow travellers – were taking a very similar route as we are! We walked to the bottom of the cable car, which we took up the mountain, before climbing the final kilometre to the summit. The view was simply breathtaking and reminded me a lot of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.

We enjoyed a few hours at the top – climbing rocks, taking photos, exploring the temples, and making new friends both of the deer and human (French, Japanese and Brazilian!) varieties.

Having not eaten since our late breakfast, we were, at 4pm, faced with the difficult decision whether to eat or see as much as we could before it closed and became dark. We decided to skip lunch and explored the Treasure Halls (a gallery of various artefacts and artwork), the Daishō-in temple and the Itsukushima temple, a vermillion temple built over an inlet, with walkways connecting it to the land and looking directly on to the famous Torii gate.

After the temple closed at 5.30, we, on our stomachs’ advice, decided to find something to eat. Ben tried some barbequed oysters from a street vendor who was kind enough to give him four for the price of two as he was keen to sell his last four oysters so he could close for the day. We decided on dinner at a decent-but-empty-looking restaurant and although it was not cheap, we had a lovely dinner and a nice chat to the owner, who said we were her only customers for the day! Ben and I spent much of the journey home trying to work out how or why it was sustainable for her to keep the restaurant open in low season. Once we were back in Hiroshima, we had a quick dip in the local onsen, where we thought we might encounter some yakuza but managed to escape unscathed, and headed home for some GTD before bed.