Hiroshima and Miyajima

The adventure began in heat. Boarding a coach to Osaka at 11pm, when it’s still hot, and getting off in Osaka at 6:30am, when it’s already hot – and boarding a coach to Hiroshima (広島) at 7:20 when it’s even hotter…! Yes, that’s certainly an experience. Fortunately, the coach had air conditioning – and a couple of surprises.

I’ve only ever had luxuries like this on planes to and from Japan!

Since I arrived right in time for lunch, the first thing I did was eating the so called Hiroshima-yaki (広島焼き) or Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki (広島風お好み焼き). Okonomiyaki literally means “fry what you like” and it’s a kind of a pancake with cabbage, vegetables and meat or seafood – or whatever you want to have there, really – with a special okonomiyaki sauce. It somehow happened that Osaka and Hiroshima have their own styles of this dish, and sort of compete with each other as to which one’s better. But the difference between the two is quite simple: while the Osaka-style okonomiyaki is fried all at once, with everything mixed in to the batter, the Hiroshima-style one is fried in layers. Also, Hiroshima-yaki often uses noodles, not just the pancake batter, which doesn’t happen in Osaka.

For my Hiroshima-yaki lunch I went to a place that both a friend of mine (hi, Joy!) and a guidebook have recommended: one of the shopping centres in front of the train station has a whole floor dedicated to just Hiroshima-yaki for reasonable money. Since I had no idea how to make a decision, I just went to the closest place – and I definitely wasn’t disappointed! Here it’s worth adding that I like okonomiyaki, full stop, it’s one of the few things within Japanese cuisine that I genuinely like and occasionally crave. Up until now I was a die-hard fan of the Osaka-style one (local patriotism from three years back), but after trying the Hiroshima-yaki… well, I did soften up a bit, though I think I still slightly prefer the Osaka one. But they don’t differ that much in taste (mainly because of the sauce which tastes the same everywhere and has quite a distinct taste), so it must be down simply to whether you want noodles in your pancake or not. I did get very full, though, and still had plenty left, which was then eaten up for dinner later that day!

Om nom nom!

After stocking up on tourist pamphlets and a daily tram pass, and then checking in to my hotel, I went sightseeing. First thing on the list was the Peace Memorial Park, erected in memory of the A-bomb victims. Let’s be honest, at the mere sound of the name “Hiroshima” everyone immediately thinks of the atomic bomb, I’ll later try to show that this is not all there is to the city, but right now let’s face the unpleasant history. I personally believe that everyone ought to go there and spare a thought to the utter nightmare that happened on August 6^th 1945 at 8:15am. For those of you who find it hard to imagine (and it is difficult, incredibly difficult), I’d like to suggest this clip, but also: WARNING! This video is terrifyingly graphic in depicting the moment of the explosion and definitely isn’t for the weak hearted. In short: trigger warning!

"Barefoot Gen", the scene I'm talking about starts at 1:58

It seems that just the simple fact that I travel alone attracts all kinds of adventures and people, but in this case I’m quite glad that happened. Very shortly after entering the Peace Park I stopped in front of a poster with some A-bomb history, when a guy approached me and began explaining what I just read. As it turned out, this guy, Masaaki, was a volunteer guide from a group of other volunteer guides who show people around the Peace Park and explain it all. So when he offered to guide me around, I readily agreed. And honestly? Nevermind that had he not been there I wouldn’t have known a whole lot of stuff, which I’ll do my best to share along with the pictures, but often just a mere presence, even of such a brief acquaintance as Masaaki, was… hm, not quite soothing, that’s a little too strong, but definitely helped in keeping my spirits up.

Moreover, it was purely weird to walk around the park with all this heat coming down from the skies, while at the same time being very aware that I was mere metres away from the explosion’s epicentre and that that day it must’ve also been really hot and humid, that the sun was shining and everything was just as normal as it was in the present. I can only compare it with walking around the Auschwitz concentration camp in beautiful weather – it’s a very similar surreal feeling.

WARNING!

Some pictures (especially one) are quite graphic.

The famous A-Bomb Dome (原爆ドーム). It's one of the last buildings to remain as they were since the bombing.

 Another building that survived (though I have no picture of it) is now a Tourist Information Centre, though at the time of the bombing it was a kimono shop. It's also famous because the one and only person who was in the building's basement survived the bombing - were it not for Masaaki, I'd never know that, but also I wouldn't know that if you ask the staff at the Tourist Info Centre, you can go down to this basement.

Steel bent by the force and heat of the explosion.

One of the models at the Atomic Bomb Museum (Entry fee is mere Y50, that is £0.30, you have no excuse!)

Steel door bent by the explosion's force and heat.

Buddha statues with different kinds of damage.

August 6th 1945, 8:15 am.

Black rain on a wall, which fell shortly after the bombing. An interesting fact, there's a novel called "Black Rain" by Ibuse Matsuji, which is based on the real events.

Many of the pictures in the museum were just as shocking as this life-size display.

Three symbols of the Peace Park (from the furthest one): the A-Bomb Dome, the Peace Fire and the Memorial Cenotaph. The stone underneath the cenotaph has a poem praying for peace for the victims and urging everyone to work together in order to preserve global peace

Children's Peace Monument. Displays around it are full of crane chains sent by people from around the world.

There's a belief in Japan that if you make a thousand paper cranes, a crane deity will appear and will grant you a wish. When Sadako Sasaki, a girl who survived the bombing, fell ill from radiation-induced leukaemia, she kept making those cranes while in hospital in hope to get well.

Sadly, Sadako died aged 12. There are a few versions of her story, so it's not clear whether she succeeded at making a thousand cranes. Nevertheless, she and her paper cranes are now one of the symbols of the A-Bomb in Hiroshima.

In order to get some mental rest – let’s face it: after the park and the museum you almost desperately need that – I went to see the Hiroshima Castle (広島城). To be honest, I didn’t even expect to get in, I knew that I missed the visiting hours and just hoped to at least catch a glimpse from the outside, but the castle park was open to visitors and it was just the inside of the castle itself that I couldn’t go in to. And from that place my main impressions are as follows.

Firstly: the castle seen from outside the park seems a lot bigger than it actually is. True, the only thing that they’ve restored of the castle was just one tower, but when you see the walls on a hill and this tower rising straight from above the walls, it’s easy to think “Wow, that’s quite tall!” – but once you’re in front of it, especially if you’ve seen a few other Japanese castles before, it becomes rather tiny. In the end I didn’t go inside, but I’m quite happy with just seeing it the outside and the castle park.

Secondly: now I understand why Hiroshima was a nuclear bombing target a little bit better. There are ruins of the Hiroshima Imperial Military Headquarters on the park’s grounds and just below the castle tower there’s Gokoku-jinja (護国神社); this name literally means “Shrine for Protecting the Country”. It’s not the only Gokoku-jinja in the country (I saw one in Nagoya and I heard there’s one in Kanazawa too), there’s no controversy over them now, unlike the Yasukuni Shrine (靖国神社) in Tokyo, by the Imperial Palace, which is in the news very often (in short: there are some A-class war criminals buried there, but despite international protests and pressure, almost every Japanese Prime Minister goes there on an official visit). But going back to the point: Hiroshima was quite a right-wing place back in pre-War days, which you can see surprisingly well when walking around the castle park.

Hiroshima Castle and Gokoku-jinja.

Gokoku-jinja.

Ruins of the Hiroshima Imperial Military Headquarters

If you can get the whole castle to fit in a picture without bending over backwards, then you know it's quite small.

There’s also another place for post-Peace Park mental rest and that is the Shukkei Garden (縮景園). I’m sort of going against the chronology of events here; Shukkei Garden was also closed after I left the Peace Memorial Park, so I went there the next day around early evening time, but even then it was obvious that this is a perfect spot for relaxing. The garden was constructed in 1620 and was for private use of Hiroshima daimyo (feudal lord). Just before WW2 it was given to Hiroshima Prefecture and although the A-bomb destroyed it completely, as soon as 1951 it was opened again for public, while restoration was still in progress. The very name, which translates as “shrink-scenery garden” indicates what we’ll find there. Shukkei-en is a small garden, compared to Kanazawa’s Kenroku-en it’s really tiny, but it’s absolutely packed with miniaturised garden sceneries, a pond, little bridges and more, so that it seems to have no end. Honestly, if you like strolling around places like that, you could do that for hours and still feel like you haven’t seen it all. If I’m honest, were it not that it costs to enter the garden (though not too much for Japan, only Y260, which is about £1.50), then if I lived in Hiroshima I’d be a frequent visitor, it’s just a gorgeous little place, perfect for gathering your thoughts or being inspired to write, or to get rid of some stress, or just to spend a few moments in peace and quiet, away from the big city life (well, mostly, from one end of the garden you can hear the trains going to and from the train station).

Rainbow Bridge.

Oh, hi there, Mr Crab!

Although technically that’s a whole separate island, it’s under the jurisdiction of Hiroshima Prefecture, so it’s only fit that I talk about the island of Miyajima (宮島) now. If the name means nothing to you, then pictures of the “floating” toori gate and the Itsukushima shrine (厳島神社) will probably seem more familiar – that’s what Miyajima is most known for. And for a couple of other shrines and temples, if you’re interested, then you could spend a whole day just walking from one to another and admiring the views. And it’s also famous for wild deer that are very used to humans, so much so that they wander carelessly around the island and bother tourists for treats. Evil things tried to steal my momiji manju (もみじ万寿), a cake with sweet paste inside (traditionally it’d be a sweet adzuki bean paste, but there’s plenty of other flavours to choose from), which are Miyajima’s delicacy. And although the day before that sun was also shining bright, it was only there, in Miyajima, that despite my SPF 50 sunscreen (pretty much the standard in Japan) I got my first shorts and fringe tan of the trip.

Time to get on the ferry!

The gate seen from aboard the ferry.

Itsukushima Shrine.

Screw that, I'm not going to pretend that I'm not a tourist when I am!

UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

I agree with this gentleman; in a heat like that sitting in the shade for a moment, especially when you have views like this, is all you need to be happy

Buddhis temple Daisho-in (大聖院), which is right at the exit of Itsukushima Shrine.

The Five-Storey Pagoda.

Not that anyone cared about this.

Momiji manju with a custard filling.

It was delicious! And I managed to save my manju from the deer!

So, a word or two to wrap up? Well, Hiroshima definitely met all my expectations. I was genuinely a bit sad to leave, I’d have happily spent more time there to get to know the city better, maybe even live there for a brief moment to get a taste of daily life there and not just a couple of touristy snaps. Hiroshima has a nice, surprisingly calm atmosphere, especially given Hiroshima’s stereotype for being tough, rough and home to Yakuza, the Japanese mafia. Maybe it’s just the places I went to, maybe the hot weather got people lazy, but I did feel that Hiroshima really embraced the “City of Peace” label. At the same time, despite this calm, all you need to do is wait until it gets darker to start living less calmly in some club or izakaya, I guess it’s one of those places that never really sleeps. If any one of you ever has the chance to go to Hiroshima, then I urge you to go! I think you won’t be disappointed.