4th August – Moving day again
So, I won’t bore you with the details about bullet trains again, but there was another nice Ekiben involved. Today was the day I moved on from Nagasaki to Hiroshima which took just less than 3 hours. By bullet trains and limited express trains. I also ended up losing my cap on the Shinkansen as I fell asleep and then woke up just before Hiroshima.
The place I am staying at is called Cocostay Felice. It is an apartment building near the atomic peace park and had everything that I needed.
I also went out for dinner to get a local Hiroshima speciality called Okonomiyaki. The one I had was made from crepe dough and had cabbage, Egg, Noodles, pork and I am sure it had a teriyaki sauce on top as well. Okonomiyaki has a history dating back to 16th century, but they became popular in the region after the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and again after WW2 due to it being an inexpensive and filling dish that all ages could enjoy.
5th August – Bike tour of Hiroshima and Hot Springs.
My first order of business today was to go to the Hiroshima peace park rest house and meet up with my guide for the day and the rest of the group. Now by some luck it ended up just being me and my guide as the 2 others had pulled out the day before, so I ended up having a private cycling tour of Hiroshima instead.
Here is the link to the cycling tour that I went on:
My guide Moe spoke good English and was a good tour guide. I am glad that the bikes were electric bikes as I don’t think I would have been fit enough to do it all if they weren’t. We started off by going to Hiroshima Castle which was rebuild after the war.
The history of Hiroshima and how it was rebuilt was amazing to list to and the stories that her parents and grandparents told her really make it hit home about the devastation that happened.
Part way though we ended up taking a rest back at the rest house as it was hot outside and that is when she took me down to the basement which was where one of the survivors Mr Eizo Nomura survived the blast. For him it was a day like any other. He came to his usual job at the fuel house (fuel rationing building) where he went to start work, only his boss hadn’t brought up the paperwork from the basement as usual. He couldn’t ask anyone else to do it because they were all busy, so he went down to find the paperwork he needed and was struggling to find it. Then it happened. The bomb went off. He only survived the bomb because he was in the basement. The rest of the build where he worked was destroyed.
She took me to the Cenotaph to pay my respects to the fallen and then to see a symbol of Hiroshima’s recovery and that is the streetcar (also known as trams to us). Three of the 650 series that rolled off the line in 1942 and was state of the art at the time are still in operation today. This mean the cars are over 80 years old and they are still carrying passengers!!!
The streetcars were also back up and running about 3 days after the bomb was set off which helped people to recover because when all you see around you is nothing moving and the destruction that had been caused, something moving and blowing its whistle can cause people to get back up and give people some hope to move on and not and not to just look at the despair that was all around them.
After this I went back to my apartment and started looking for a hot spring because it had been a really hot day. I managed to find one, but I had to take a streetcar about 15-20 mins and then walk another 10 to get there. Hot springs can also be referred to as an onsen, and the concept will be extremely weird to most westerners as you get a small towel to bathe with and that is it. Yep, no budgie smugglers or swimming shorts are allowed. Now yes it was weird at first, but after getting in the relaxing waters which are supposed to be good for you, well it didn’t really bother me anymore. I even had this kid about 12 years old, come up to me and ask me where I was from and what I was doing in Japan. It was good to have a conversation with someone even though I am a foreigner there and he spoke good English as well.
6th August – Miyajima and Remembrance Day.
So, I had a bit of lie in today as I was absolutely knackered and unfortunately didn’t wake up in time for the remembrance service at about 8am in the morning. So, I got up and started to make my way to Miyajima. That is an island just in Hiroshima’s bay and there used to be a bridge that would appear at low tide connecting both the mainland and Miyajima together. There are also loads of deer about the island chilling and are not afraid to be around humans.
It also has a very famous Torii gate which gets fully uncovered during low tide and becomes partly submerged during high tide. As I arrived here quite late, I couldn’t do what I wanted to do and go for a hike especially as it would be going dark in the next 2 hours. Instead, I took a bit of a tour around the island, went to the Shrine that was there and then I got a bit lost.
There was a rickshaw person who could see I was a bit lost called Takumi Shiroyama. I was a bit apprehensive about going on a rickshaw as it was expensive, but I tell you what, at the same time it was great fun!
After getting the ferry back from Miyajima it was time to go back to the apartment, drop off my backpack and head to the Hiroshima Peace Park again, but this time for the lanterns.
I joined the queue for the lanterns and started to realise that I needed to get the paper for mine before I queued. I kindly asked the couple in front of me where do I get them from. So, the guy Takumi took me to buy one and then we meet back up with his wife Kayto. There were a nice couple who live in Hiroshima and even though my Japanese language skills was limited and so was their English, we became friends (through the help of google translate).
It was good being able to be a part of the lantern remembrance and wishes for world peace festival. I am just sad that it was my last day in Hiroshima.
Next time I will be blogging from Matsue, a castle town about 3.5 hour north of Hiroshima. Thanks for reading everyone.
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