24 June, 2017
An easy morning this morning as we checked out of our hotel in Fukuoka at about 10:45 am and wheeled our suitcases about 150 meters down the street to the railway station. It is just starting to drizzle as we walk down the street and a taxi pulls alongside to see if we want to take a taxi for the short walk. We decline. The question in my mind is how many Jap-isms will we find on the way to the platform. This is not China.
It was so easy that the only complaint that Lynn made was that the textured footpath guides for the blind kept derailing her suitcase. Even the curbs were lowered so that we didn’t have to lift our suitcases at all for the entire trip to the platform. They even had a quiet, almost deserted waiting room available with announcements in English.
We will alight the train at Hiroshima which is the second stop on this train’s journey to Tokyo. But before this super express train (Nozomi #26) to Tokyo can leave it is cleaned so thoroughly from top to tail for 25 minutes after its arrival that we ended up only having 3 minutes to board. This is a far cry from the filthy seats and bathrooms of the trains in China.
The high speed train will be going at 320 kph today and our total travel time including one stop on the way will be just on 1 hour to cover the 280 kilometers.
It rains quite heavily for most of the hour trip to Hiroshima so our view of the countryside is a bit misty and wet. The small townships passed on the way are well ordered and the houses are in great condition with nice gardens.
As you would expect we arrived at Hiroshima railway station right on time. A quick taxi ride to the Oriental Hotel Hiroshima and, as our room won’t be ready until 2:00 pm, we take a walk around the local area to get our bearings and check out possible restaurants for dinner for the next four nights.
On our way I spot donuts in a small cafe so we stop to indulge while Lynn plans our activities relative to the weather forecast.
Walking distances seem easy compared with what we expected when checking out the maps. We walked to the centre of town where there are lots of covered pedestrian malls and restaurants (and sake bars). It seems that we will be able to walk to many of the planned tourist stops for the next few days but there is also a tram service (streetcars) that I’d like to try out.
By 2:00 pm it starts to rain so we scurry back to the hotel to check in and unpack whereby I discover that I’ve had bigger offices than the tiny room we’ve been allocated on the 19th floor. It even makes the Ibis Styles room we had in Seoul seem somewhat gargantuan.
But it appears that the 19th Floor is quite special in that it has become something of an art gallery, each guest room featuring an “Hiroshima Appeals” annual poster.
After catching up on a few emails and Blog updates it’s still raining heavily. Let’s hope we don’t have four days of wet weather (although it may be preferable to hot and humid).
By 7:00 pm it is time to brave the weather and find somewhere to eat. The original plan was to walk up to the city mall to a restaurant that we walked past this afternoon but we decided to try a little place just around the corner from the hotel.
Lynn wanted to go to the sake house but they only took cash so we went in to the tiny 7-seat restaurant that took AmEx. By the time we sat down every seat was taken. The food was great and we managed to also down two large beers and two small flasks of sake.
The bill was a bit staggering based on what we have been paying for dinner since we left Oz but it was worth the money for the good fun of the evening and a taste of authentic local food – not to mention the 2 small bottles of local sake that the chef gave to us just before we left.
25 June, 2017
It’s a bit overcast today but at least it isn’t raining. The plan is to do the tourist thing and walk to the Peace Park to take a few photographs then do the Museum.
After a few hours it was time to forget the war and enjoy some ice cream. I am not going to make any comments about what we saw or the rights or wrongs of why it all happened. Lynn will be amazed by this statement alone!
We headed back to the hotel for a well-earned break but naturally Lynn had to check out a Shrine on the way, because of its unusual circular, straw gateway. Pictured instructions indicated that one needed to thread oneself through the circle and around the 2 stone pillars a couple of times before proceeding to the shrine. Interestingly, the sea used to lap the steps to this shrine. Today the sea is about 3 km south.
26 June, 2017
Today’s outing is to visit the Hiroshima Castle. Sometimes called Carp Castle it was the home of the daimyō of the Hiroshima han. The castle was constructed in the 1590s, but was destroyed by the atomic bombing on August 6, 1945. It was rebuilt in 1958, a replica of the original that now serves as a museum of Hiroshima’s history before World War II.
During the final months of World War II, the castle compound served as the headquarters of the 2nd General Army and Fifth Division, stationed there to deter the projected Allied invasion of the Japanese mainland. The castle was destroyed in the atomic bomb blast of August 6, 1945, and for many years, it was believed the castle structure was blown away by the explosion that destroyed Hiroshima, but newly-discovered evidence suggests the explosion destroyed the lower pillars of the castle, and the rest of it collapsed as a result.
In the grounds of the castle in WWII the Japanese Air Force had built a bunker to communicate air raids.
Yoshie Oka was 14 when the atomic bomb hit. She was working in a bunker here, at a call station for the military. She was due for a shift change, but the girl who was supposed to relieve her from duty was being chastised by a teacher for not paying attention in the morning drill, and was running late for work.
At 8:12 am, Oka’s station detected the Enola Gay directly over the city. She waited for her station manager to authorize the air raid warning, but by the time that happened it, it was too late. The bomb hit at about 8:15.
Even behind two thick walls of reinforced concrete, Oka was thrown back by the blast and knocked out. When she awoke moments later, she went outside into the fog and asked a wounded soldier what had happened. Then she went back to the bunker, found a working phone, and gave the world’s first report of Hiroshima. Repeating the soldier’s words, she told the call center in Fukuyama, “A new type of bomb was dropped.”
I wonder if today’s telecommunications systems could survive in these conditions.
27 June, 2017
We have purchased an unlimited day pass on local public transport for today. The first stop on the local street cars is to go to Hiroshima Railway Station at the end of the line and buy our Shinkansen train tickets to Kyoto for tomorrow. Easily done.
Next, we go all the way to the other end of the street car line to the ferry terminal (about 75 minutes) and take the also-included ferry over to Miyajima (10 minutes). All our connections have been seamless – off one, onto the other and go.
Miyajima is a small island which has a number of shrines and temples and the famous ‘floating’ Torii Gate.
As we alight from the ferry we are met by a few wild deer. Apparently the local deer are very comfortable with tourists and even get close for photos just in case you have food with you. They are as sneaky as the monkeys in Zhangjiajie so don’t carry food around in plastic carry bags.
Miyajima has been worshiped as a divine island (“the island where God resides”) since ancient times, which is why the shrine was built on the seashore where the tide ebbs and flows.
On approaching the Itsukushima Shrine, there are the Five-storied Pagoda and Hokoku Shrine.
In 1587 Toyotomi Hideyoshi ordered the hall below to be built for chanting the Buddhist sutras every month to console the souls of the war dead. This hall is popularly known as Senjokaku, meaning the Hall of One Thousand Tatami Mats – its floor space, including verandah, is 1,314.3 sq. metres. In 1872 the hall was renamed Hokoku Shrine and dedicated to the soul of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Since then, it has been an auxiliary shine of Itsukushima Shrine.
Presented amongst the rafters is a number of old artworks. Most were so old that they had lost a lot of their original colours but some were quite interesting.
The Itsukushima Shrine was first built in 593, then rebuilt in 1168 on the same scale as it is today. A 280-metre corridor spans more than 20 buildings.
Back in the day, gambling and entertainment were banned from Hiroshima and moved to Miyashima instead. Kabuki and Noh Drama were/are performed here on the floating platforms.
The Shrine was designated a World Heritage Site in 1996. It has a gigantic vermilion Torii gate that stands over the sea and various graceful vermilion-lacquered shrine pavilions that float on the water.
After our visit to the shrines we took a stroll around the water’s edge and parklands. Very peaceful and so quiet relative to places in China.
The village had all the usual shops and Lynn stopped to check out the local delicacies.
The island has many other sights, including a primeval forest and oddly-shaped rocks found on the holy mountain, Mount Misen. We had planned to go to the top of the mountain on the ‘rope way’ but the cable car was closed for maintenance for the next 2 weeks.
A most pleasant day out and an easy trip back home via the ferry and another hour trip on the street car. It was now getting on to peak hour so the street car was quite busy. We couldn’t help but notice a young couple sitting opposite kept falling asleep and with the rocking of the street car they looked like a pair of nodding Japanese dolls that we had seen for sale in souvenir shops.
Dinner tonight was real Japanese fast food. We dropped in at a Standing Sushi Bar where you ordered fresh food and drink and just stood and ate. Lynn remarked that it was very similar to Italian coffee shops/bars where you ordered your morning espresso and stood at the bar to drink it.
I don’t think that a standing sushi bar will catch on. It would have been very nice to at least have a bar stool to sit down to eat.
Tomorrow we leave Hiroshima for Kyoto.
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