Hiroshima: A-Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial & Other Horrors plus Bizarre Cat Cafe Encounter

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From a cat cafe that wasn't a cafe to the horror of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, today has been a strange one.

The trains from Kyoto to Hiroshima were fairly simple, although the lady reserving our seats was telling us that we couldn't make reservations, despite reserving us some seats - it was all a bit confusing. There was one change, easily done in 9 minutes because everything is on time.... more or less.

Arriving at Hiroshima we were looking for Hiroshimaeki Station to catch a train to Dobashi Station (where our J-Hoppers hostel is located) - I'd looked it all up on Google maps previously. But it turned out that we were already in Hiroshimaeki Station and what we were actually looking for was trams. Oh Google maps, you never told me that!

Hiroshima uses a lot less English on their signage than Kyoto and so we had to put a lot more effort in to find our way about. Glyn asked a guy in what appeared to be a ticket office where we could purchase tram tickets, the reply was him pointing to an English sentence on a piece of paper telling us to buy our tickets on the tram. Obviously we're not the first to ask. Riding on the packed tram we watched the locals for clues on how to pay and eventually we sussed the machine by the driver: it seemed so simple once we knew how. During the trip we passed the unmissable A-Bomb Dome - it stands out like a very sore thumb. The journey to Dobashi was short and I recognised the streets and shorter walk to our hostel from Google street view - how did people manage before Google?!

J-Hoppers is basic, a hostel and there's not a lot more to say but we couldn't check in yet, so left our luggage in storage and headed for Peace Memorial Park which was built in the 1950's covering the area close to the centre of the blast from the 1945 Atomic bomb.

On the way Glyn noticed a huge sign for a cat cafe and I so wanted to go inside - maybe we could have lunch in there? Up one flight of stairs, a woman pointed to a sign in broken English explaining the rules - no feeding the cats, no flash photography, no shoes (of course) no this that the other etc etc. Three cats ran to the door and greeted us and the woman spoke no English, but sprayed some disinfectant cleaner on our hands. Being a cafe, I was expecting a menu of food and drinks, but nothing was offered and thus the woman sat back down by the door. Being the only customers, I went to fuss the 6 cats whilst Glyn looked uncomfortable for it was a very odd situation. The walls were covered in book shelves that the cats could climb over, and there were photos of the cats with their names in Japanese plus their birthdays in English - this was the only English. The woman briefly decided to entertain a skittish one year old cat with a toy on a stick, enticing it onto a glass bridge above our heads. We'd paid for half and hour and left promptly, feeling a little freaked out as though we'd been part of some weird hidden camera comedy show. But at least the cats were lovely!

We stopped to get some lunch from the 7-11, I had to manage with an egg sandwich as the lack of English meant it was very hard to find vegetarian food as the Japanese don't do vegetarian - as far as we know they don't have a word for it and tend to put fish flakes on dishes that could have been veggie otherwise. Eating in the park and worrying in case we offended anyone, we were approached by a man who wanted to practice his English on us and kept apologising for mis-pronouncing words. He told us how the Pope had visited 30 years ago and that President Obama had been a few months ago, having 10,000 police for the event but only visited for 2 hours. Tetsuo (I think that was his name) chatted for a while and said he would like the British Queen to visit too (you can keep her if you like!)

The A-Bomb Dome is the only surviving building from the centre of Hiroshima from before the bomb dropped. Built in 1915 by a Czech architect, it's now a hollow shell that was more or less under the bomb which exploded 600 metres above. Its occupants were instantly killed and the twisted metal, gaping holes and rubble are a scary but small illustration of the horror. It is now preserved as a UNESCO World Heritage Site although survivors of the bomb had originally thought to pull it down because of the bad memories.

The Peace Memorial Museum is an awful and somber place that costs only Y200 to see. Packed full of unusually quiet tourists, you start off with huge photos of the mushroom cloud taken minutes after the bomb exploded. Shuffling into the next room, we were confronted with replicas of shattered streets complete with three life sized models of blackened burnt children in tattered clothing with their skin melting off and fingernails dripping. Really sickening. And then a 3D model / map of the city showing the full devastation plus the few remaining buildings that somehow weren't completely flattened. There were many exhibits of clothing, lunch boxes, shoes and other everyday items (mostly from children) that were found by their searching parents with heart-breaking stories of how the kids were found burnt and dying, soon to die. I struggle to put into words how awful it all is and the sickness inside of me. I was sure the room smelt bad and was making me nauseous but Glyn couldn't smell anything. All the stories ended in death. Around 140,000 were killed on 6th August 1945 - the full number will never be known as the records of all the people were destroyed in the same blast. I think the death toll may have doubled within a few years because of the subsequent radiation.

Lots of kids' drawings of the aftermath were on the walls plus the story of a girl Sadako, who at age 6 had survived the blast only to die of leukaemia a few years later. There's a Japanese custom that if you can make 1000 paper cranes, your wish will come true so Sadako was trying to make a wish to survive her illness but failed to make 1000 cranes. Because of this, there are memorial cranes in various areas to remember all the children killed in the blast.

One image that stuck with me was a drawing of some Japanese men looking at the sky moments before the blast. There had been three planes and the first two had dropped parachutes with scientific and photography equipment to record the effects of the blast - this being new technology. The people must have been curious as to why a couple of parachutes were being quietly dropped and then the third plane, Enola Gay, dropped the devastating bomb. The coldness of dropping the equipment first was utterly chilling.

Not a lot in the museum explained why Hiroshima was chosen to be bombed, nor was any blame or anger directed at anyone. There were petitions to stop the use of nuclear weapons but apart from that and the repeated use of the word 'peace', there was nothing positive at the end; I saw no hope for peace. The walls were adorned with images of visiting presidents, dignitaries and other world leaders all looking very solemn and making speeches about peace, but these are the same people that keep the wars going. How anyone could sanction any kind of bombing after seeing that place is completely beyond me. They must walk through with their eyes shut.

After watching short films and videos from survivors and medical staff, we headed to the Cenotaph where the names of known survivors are listed and it is possible to use computers there to look for relatives lost. The walls here showed many photographs of some of those who died. Other sights in the Peace Memorial Park included the Peace Bell, Children's Peace Monument and the Flame of Peace. But I felt no peace after visiting that museum, sitting under the shadow of the A-Bomb Dome. It was time to move on.

Walking through Hiroshima high rises we got to the Shukkei-en stroll garden about an hour before it shut. Obviously this garden had to be rebuilt after the bomb and many charred human remains had been found there - reminders are everywhere in this city. But the garden was still serene with huge koi carp in the ponds, with lots of mini islands and tiny bridges with a variety of other Japanese style bits and bobs. Not a lot of flowers, I presume because it's the wrong time of year but still interesting. However Glyn and I both noticed that our legs were covered in insect bites.

Walking back into the main drag, it was getting dark and Hiroshima became a forest of neon signs, screens and lights with adverts everywhere. A trip to a department store was necessary as Glyn needed a new camera strap and I could not help but notice the overuse of point of sale, there is just so much of it!!

Down some back alleyways that could never be dark due to swathes of lights, we found a restaurant that had an English translation (of sorts) of their menu. We were seated at the bar (the small booths were fenced in and appeared to be just for Japanese people). Scouring the menu, I found a couple of veggie options and the beer.

Looking around, I thought about the fish tanks, realising that they were not there for decoration and with the chef stood in front of me I was rather nervous about seeing something I would not like. It happened after I'd eaten - a small fish was chosen from the tank behind the bar and seemed to be stunned and I prayed that it wouldn't feel anything and it would be over quickly. Fortunately for me, there was a wooden barrier between myself and the chef so I would not have been able to see what was happening had I tried to look - and I was looking the other way. Not so fortunately for the fish, it was dead and will have been eaten by now. I was ready to leave, I appreciate that this is part of the Japanese way of life and far worse things happen to animals a lot closer to my home that I never see - but it is still very hard to witness.

We returned to J-Hoppers totally knackered, and climbed the stairs to our room to find it was almost bare, with tatami mats and our Japanese style bedding (including the very thin mattresses) folded into two neat piles that required us to make our own beds. This is a Japanese custom and you are meant to fold them back each day but fat chance of that happening with me here! It also has those weird fancy toilets with the sink on the cistern as the one at the cycle tour in Kyoto - bonus!

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