Hiroshima

The Atomic Bomb Dome

A copy of the Atomic Bomb (smaller than I expected)

This Graph explains the damage 

Deer

Okonomiyaki with Oysters    

Torii Gate

Steamed Oyster 

Baked Eggplant in Sweet Miso Sauce

We left Kurashiki having had a restful time at Kurashiki Ryokan. They are very gracious, with extremely high standards. I had the Japanese style breakfast today. There were at least 14 separate little dishes, including an hibachi, where I grilled my own fish. The was the first Japanese Breakfast I had on this trip. I guess, I am a bacon and eggs kind of guy. But it was worth the try.

We travelled on to Miyajima Island. The name itself is a little redundant, because “jima” means island in Japanese. We took a 20-minute cab ride to the train station to catch the Shinkansen. At Fukuyama we got off the train and transferred to another Shinkansen to Hiroshima. At Hiroshima we took a taxi to The Peace Memorial Park. I took a short movie of a Shinkansen flying through the train station.

You can see it here.

I have seen the iconic image of destroyed building hundreds of times, the steel girders of the dome are all that remains. It is now called “The Atomic Bomb Dome”. There is also a Cenotaph (empty tomb) for all that died and were never properly buried it contains all of their names. I didn’t know exactly what to expect. Hiroshima has been totally rebuilt nothing-old remains, it looks like any other modern industrial Japanese city. All that was old was destroyed on August 6, 1945 at when the US dropped the 1^st Atomic Bomb ever used in war on Hiroshima.

Many places one visits, people take pictures or selfies of themselves with the image in the background: The Eiffel Tower, The Great Wall of China, etc. This is one place where I didn’t see people doing that. Rather they stopped they looked, they reflected they took a picture or two and all probably said to them self in whatever language they spoke “God this better not happen again”. The Atomic Bomb Dome is located next to a small river with an adjoining park. At the far end of the park is a museum. It has everything you would expect, testimony of the survivors, statistics of the damage, estimates of the dead and wounded, mementos of those that didn’t survive. The exhibit has very vivid photos of burn victims, burnt clothing and human remains. It is very direct about the death that was caused by the bomb. School children were being escorted through the museum and were taking notes. One thing there wasn’t was recrimination. The arguments of if the bomb should have been dropped or endless and pointless. It was. It shouldn’t happen again.

Almost all major world leaders come to Hiroshima at sometime, pay respects and write a memorial sentence or two. We read many. Hopefully they mean what they say.

Before coming to Hiroshima I had two objectives to visit The Peace Memorial Park the other to eat okonomiyaki, Hiroshima is famous for its okonomiyaki. It is a Japanese version of Egg Foo Young. The Japanese claim they invented it first. I was also aware that Hiroshima is famous for its oysters. Upon leaving the museum we walked to the nearby dock and grabbed a 45-minute ferry to the island of Miyajima.

Miyajima is dominated by a Shinto Shrine. In the bay is a giant Torii Gate that is the iconic image of the island. The island is sacred and no one is allowed to born on the island or to be buried here. We walked to our Ryokan: Kurayado Iroha. When you get off the ferry there are load speaker announcements warning people that there are wild deer everywhere and watch they don’t eat your papers or tickets. They nuzzle right up to people. They also warn that if the deer has horns it is a male and since this is mating season, and the horny deer has his mind on one thing only, stay out of its way! It is amazing I always think of deer’s as running away from people. Here there are dozens, sort of like cows in India but better looking.

The Ryokan check-in time was 4pm and it was about 2pm. They suggested that we walk across the street to a restaurant that only serves Okonomiyaki. I was in heaven. I was about to have Hiroshima’s finest. Then it got better! They have Okonomiyaki topped with fresh grilled oysters from the bay. We had some sake and it was perfect very large snack. We then walked around the waterfront looking at the large Torii Gate set in the Inland Sea of Japan.

We had another 12 course Kaiseki dinner followed by drinks in our room.