On a cool day in March, we hopped on a train from Kyoto to Kobe to Hiroshima. It was a long ride, and we arrived at the city nighttime. The city is just so charming, it's one of my favorites in Japan! They had trams running parallel to cars on the streets instead of the high-speed subways we had in Tokyo.
Hiroshima is famous in history textbooks as the city destroyed by the first nuclear weapon, the atomic bomb, which was dropped during World War II, on August 6, 1945. The city was charming alright, but it also possessed a kind of eeriness I could not explain. It was undeniable that it was here, that a depressing event happened some 65 years ago.
The next morning, a good sunny but cool weather greeted us. We went off to tour the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park, the main tourist attraction of the city. It is a complex of memorials dedicated to the casualties of the atomic bombing, and was also built to advocate world peace.
The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum housed several remnants of the nuclear bombing such as rusty helmets, clothing of people and images of mushroom clouds.
There was even this watch which stopped at exactly 8:15 AM, the time of the detonation of the bomb.
It was more than a sightseeing tour. It was a place of worldwide historical importance. The visit was both solemn and disturbing at the same time.
On the same day, we also went on a side tour to Miyajima, the Itsukushima Shrine, an iconic torii situated in the sea.
When we arrived in the island, it was low tide, so we were able to walk closer to the torii and take awesome pictures like this!
On a high tide though, this is how it looks like. (Thanks, Wikipedia!)
I can't wait to go back to Japan and see some more amazing sights like this. Go if you can, it's kinda breathtaking!
Danne
