Day 10

 . . . . . . .  Rain, Rain go away . . .


Up early this morning as we are on the move again . . . . . we are off to Hiroshima this morning.  I have been told that Hiroshima is a beautiful city, so we are looking forward to seeing it.


It's still incredibly warm and humid, and it feels like everything is sticking to you the minute you step outside!  But the station isn't very far away so a quick Metro ride and we are back at Kyoto station ready to get on the Shinkansen and the 90 minute journey to Hiroshima.  Back to the map. . . .  so we are currently in Kyoto Hiroshima is about 380km away . . . and it would take about 2 hours to get there.

The Shinkansen has aircon, so it was a nice comfy journey.

Our Bullet . . .  just managed to get a piccie!

However, when we arrive at Hiroshima it was absolutely pee'ing down.  Not just raining, oh no - it is absolutely bouncing.  It's also very very humid, so not ideal sightseeing weather!!!  We ended up getting a taxi from the station to the hotel.  The hotel wasn't too far from the hotel, but we would have been soaked if we had walked.


We checked into the Oriental Hotel and had a room on the 21st floor.  This gave us great views of Hiroshima.  I had been told there were views of the Peace Park and A-Dome from the hotel but we were on the wrong side for that. But this is what we could see from our room . . .

Basically rain and haze . . .  


We have a lovely room, a nice size, which is good as hotel rooms in Japan tend to be on the small side.

 Another small bath - Scott tried this one, but it was smaller than the bath in Kyoto!!!

Another automatic toilet  . . . . . 

 

 . . . . . with more scary buttons!!!

So, we did a little unpacking, then went off to hit the streets.  It was still absolutely pouring with rain.  We had initially thought about waiting a little while to see if the rain would stop, but in the end we went for it (actually, if we had waited until the rain stopped before going out, we wouldn't have left the Hotel!!!).


The first thing we noticed, is that there are loads of monuments around the city to commemorate those killed by the A-Bomb.  Unfortunately, a lot of them are in Japanese only, so we weren't too sure what or who they were for.

 Those are lots of paper cranes on the memorial

Not too sure what the bottles of water are for . . 

We then came to the Aioi Bridge. This was the original aiming point for the Bomb.

Just past the bridge is the A-Dome.  This is in the Peace Park.  It used to be the Industrial Promotion Hall and was one of the only buildings left standing after the bomb was dropped.    There had been a lot of discussion over the years as to whether to keep the Dome or tear it down but in 1996, it became a UNESCO World Heritage protected building.  Personally I think the correct decision has been made as the dome should be a constant reminder of what these weapons can do.

It is amazing to see . . . . 


Just beyond that is the Memorial for the Mobilized Students.  This is also covered in paper cranes:

Next was the Children's Peace Monument.  This monument is a statue dedicated to the memory of the children who died as a result of the bombing. The statue is of a girl with outstretched arms with a folded paper crane above her. 


The statue is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki.  Sadako was 2 years old when the bomb was dropped and she died in 1955 age 12 years old as a result of radiation from the bomb. 


She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. There are two versions of the ending to her story - one story claims she only managed to make 644 cranes before she died however, the Museum claims she made 1,000 and more.


To this day, people (mostly children) from all around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue.

The cranes are kept in glass boxes round the memorial.


Now we made our way to the Peace Museum.  On the way we passed the Memorial Cenotaph

The names of all the people killed by the Bomb are held under the cenotaph.  


Next is the Peace Flame.  The flame has burned continuously since it was lit in 1964, and will remain lit until all nuclear bombs on the planet are destroyed and the planet is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.

We made it to the museum and it was absolutely fascinating.  It explained why Hiroshima was picked as a target, and what Hiroshima was like before August 6th 1945.  There are a load of exhibits, some a little gruesome, showing the injuries people suffered and also showed how the effects of the radiation continued for years especially for children born after the bombing to parents exposed to radiation.

There was a huge display showing Hiroshima before the bombing and what it looked like after the bombing.

The red ball shows where the Bomb detonated

Whenever there is a nuclear test, the Mayor of Hiroshima sends a letter to the Premier of that country asking them to stop testing and considering dis-arming all their bombs.  All these letters are on display - the last one being sent in October 2010 to President Obama.

It was a very thought provoking afternoon - very emotional, but I'm glad we went.

However, we now had to go back out in the rain. The problem was, we had spent so long in the museum, we had dried out . . . .  now we were going to get soaked again! I would have loved to have a walk around and look at all the other memorials and all the other sights Hiroshima had to show, but it was really miserable and raining too hard.

It took about 15 minutes to walk back to the hotel, but by this time, we were absolutely soaked to the skin - I could wring my socks out!

We were going to go out for Dinner, but once we got ready, the rain was really heavy and as we didn't have a plan of where to go, we decided to go to the little shop opposite the Hotel and get some takeaway!  Bento box for me, some pot noodle type thing for Scott.

The TV in the room only had Japanese stations, so Scott watched some baseball, then attempted to have a bath (he's really not made for a Japanese bath)!!!!  Early night for us tonight then . . . . .  Oh well never mind, it'll prepare us for our trip to Miyajima tomorrow.