Mixed Emotions

If you are in Hiroshima, and you haven’t been before, there is one place you should visit, if for nothing else than its significance in human history. The park built around one of the few remaining buildings after the first ever nuclear attack strives to serve two purposes, one as a memorial to the lives lost, and second as a warning or reminder as to how destructive we can be in war to try to bring peace instead. The park itself was a lovely place to be, especially on a warm day. Swarmed with school groups of various ages, but never feeling crowded.

Away from the park we spotted a geeky shop and had a look around. Tonnes of models, figurines, trading cards and board games, quite a few we even recognised! We then grabbed a spot of lunch at Tully’s. I have a theory that the one culinary think the Brits can hold onto as being able to do better than anyone else is the sandwich, and I’m sorry to report that theory has yet to be shot down. My sandwiches were certainly edible (I’m looking at you Denmark), but then you don’t really go to japan for a sandwich do you?

Our itinerary for Hiroshima had included a trip to see the floating torii on the nearby island of Miyajima, and we had thought to use the JR ferry to take us across, but we spotted a little flat bottomed boat that would take you there from the peace park. We hopped aboard and pootled our way down river to the sea through the city.

Out onto open water and the boat gets up to speed while we get so see some fantasic views of the local archipelago. This seemed to start a theme of gorgeous views throughout Miyajima, and I ended up taking far more photos than I’ll ever use.

Upon our arrival we were warned several times, both on information boards and tannoy announcements that the deer were wild animals, and that they might grab at paper or clothing. They weren’t kidding. They were like gangsters at times, trying the softly softly approach by trying to look cute, and if that didn’t work, they’d try to mug you! It wasn’t uncommon to see someone (Japanese and tourist alike) trying to walk away from an encounter with their chicken skewer intact.

Unfortunately though, the torii we had come to see was ensonsed in scaffold, presumably under some renovation work. Having been to it now it seems a lot more inshore now than many of the images you can find on the internet imply. The shrine was still visible no problem, but with the tide out, it didnt seem as impressive.

There was however more to see, and we decided to take the ropeway to the top of the island. To get to the ropeway though you have to pass through some beautiful scenery. Then I though I’d let some of the photos do the talking for our ride up, viewing from a platform at the top, and our way back down

With our sightseeing done for the day we decided to take the JR ferry we had originally intended to use to get back to Hiroshima.

We then made our way back into town on the tram which ended up getting packed with locals, again, like Kyoto, with cheap fairs and the ability to use an IC card, I can see why its popular. To round out the day, we ended up getting dinner in what we suspect was another izakaya, only this one was connected to a fishmonger, so we could get some tasty sashimi, my first since arriving in Japan !