Hiroshima

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Hiroshima is famous for being one of the two cities in Japan where an atomic bomb was dropped. In addition, as a much flatter city that Nagasaki, the damage caused in Hiroshima was even more vast so it has become the more famous of the two. However, after visiting the city, it was clear to me they there is so much more to it than its sad history. The city itself is one of the nicest I've visited in Japan, it was very modern whilst still keeping elements of Japanese tradition. We were very lucky because our Japanese friend, who is actually from Hiroshima, offered to show us around so we had the best tour guide possible!


Due to time constraints as we had lots of field trips and various weekends away planned, we only had time for one day in Hiroshima. To make this feasible we decided to take a night bus there from Hakata, spend the day there and then get the night bus back the following night. I thought I would be no problem since it was only 7 hours (the journey is actually only 4 hours but the bus pulls over for 3 hours so people don't get to their destination at an 'inconvenient' time haha.. Only in Japan!). However the bus wasn't a sleeper bus like the ones I'd experienced in South East Asia. Nevertheless, being the narcoleptic that I am, I managed to sleep no problem! Doing this also saved us a lot of money as we didn't have to pay for a hotel so is definitely an idea for people trying to save pennies.

We couldn't go to Hiroshima without visiting the atomic bomb memorial site and museum in order to show our respects. The most inspiring part of the whole place for me was the 'peace flame' that sit directly in the middle of the peace park with the empty shell of a building on one side and the museum directly on the other side with a lovely water feature in the middle. It is stated that the flame will never go out until nuclear weapons no longer exist in the world. Something I hope to happen very soon. The building that stands in the middle of the park marks the area that the bomb was dropped. Since it exploded directly over head, the building structure stayed almost entirely intact with the damage spreading outwards.

In the museum there were rooms and rooms full of artefacts found, personal belongings and even bones and teeth of those who lost their lives because of the blast. The stories were harrowing to say the least. Stories of people who had lost all their children and had never recovered their bodies or people with relatives they thought had survived only to show severe damage from the radiation a few days later and die awful deaths. More than half of the population of Hiroshima were killed or injured by the atomic bomb - a fact that really upsets me.

After visiting the museum we went into the memorial room where there are lists and lists of names of people who had died. We were told that even now people come from all over Japan to look up lost loved ones. What really brought it all home to me was when my Japanese friend said that he had family members that had died and many had been affected. The thing that makes me most angry about things like this is that evil is still going on in the world today.

On a happier note, the rest of our time in Hiroshima was spent in Miyajima. Miyajima is a pretty famous island in Japan well known for the big shrine gate that floats out in the sea. After making our way across the city on the tram and then taking a short ferry ride across the water we arrived at the island to be greeted by lots of cheeky deer. Japan seems to have deer in a few of their touristy places and I absolutely love them. They are such characters! Often you'll see them sneaking up behind people and trying to get into their bags to steal food that they can smell. I also had no idea of the noise deer made until this trip. It's a squeaky noise like a dog's toy and is hilarious. I couldn't believe that such a noise was coming from the dear! Another weird thing I discovered is that the antlers on these deer were soft. It felt like velvet or something and was a bit strange to touch.

We took a walk around Itsukishima Shrine, to which the floating shrine gate belongs. Unfortunately it was low tide so the whole shrine wasn't floating but regardless, it was still very beautiful with its bright orangey-red beams and views of the sea with neighbouring mountains. Then we decided to make our way up the mountain - Mount Misen. I thought it would be a fun idea to walk up it but the others didn't want to do it. This ended up being a blessing in disguise! We got the cable car half way up to the check point and then walked to the peak. Just the walk from drop off point to the peak was enough as it was a pretty hot day so I am so glad the others dissuaded me from walking the whole way! The views from the cable car and from the top were incredible! Definitely something I would recommend to everyone visiting Hiroshima.

I can't write this blog without giving a special mention to the food of Hiroshima. Each prefecture in Japan has its own speciality foods and some of Hiroshima's are oysters, conger eel and okonomiyaki (like a savoury pancake with noodles - Google it!). In turns out that all of Hiroshima specialities are amazing! We didn't have okonomiyaki this time but our friend from Hiroshima has made us it before. We had a conger eel rice bowl for lunch which was really delicious. I tried conger eel the first time I went for sushi in Japan and loved it but the conger eel in Hiroshima was even better! The oysters were most definitely the best thing I ate that weekend. I like oysters normally but these ones were particularly special. For one, they are probably the freshest oysters ever to be served. You can see the oyster farms all around Miyajima Island so they are harvested literally minutes away from where they're sold. They are biggest, plumpest oysters I have ever seen and they are barbequed with a black pepper. So simple but the end result is something they amazing! I don't think I ever want to go back to eating oysters raw.

There are also some lovely sweets available in Hiroshima called 'momiji' cakes. They are served on street stalls with filings like custard, chocolate or red bean and they also come packaged drenched in maple syrup. They are really delicious. We met our Japanese friends mum whilst we were there and in true, lovely Japanese style she brought all of us a pack of momiji cakes each!

Despite just 18 hours in Hiroshima, I feel like we managed to squeeze a lot in and I really got a feel for the city. As cities in Japan go, I really liked it. There is lots to do without being overly busy and it is a very interesting, albeit intense, place to learn more about. The transport there is very convenient with trains, subways, buses, trams and boats which makes it easy to get to everywhere you need to go. It is great to see the city has come so far since the atomic bomb destroyed it and so many people's lives there. I think it will forever remain a special part of Japan. Lessons should be learned from its history and promoted around the world. When I return to Japan in the future, Hiroshima will definitely be on my destination list, I recommend it to everyone.

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