Emily suggested I call today's post "A day of contrasts", but I felt I'd leave it as it is.
We were woken early by the trampling and clattering of a large number of people sliding wooden doors as they got up. There was a Buddhist prayer session at 6:30am that we were invited to attend and were both awake long before this due to the aforementioned noise. We chose to use the time to try to grab a little more sleep before our 7:30am breakfast time. Sadly after 15 minutes we were woken by a monk trying to bring us breakfast early. Thankfully he was a little apologetic and came back for the 7:30 time we'd said the night before. By this point we were up and dressed in the gowns provided, with our bedding folded to one side.
Breakfast consisted of an array of bean curd related things, pickles and rice. Rather nice, with less uncertainty as to the origin of the foods on offer as there was for dinner last night.
Once finished we packed and left for the bus stop, or at least we tried to but Emily made a detour via the ladies, causing us to miss the bus we needed to get to the intended train. Slightly concerned that this might put out all of our connections we waited for the next bus to take us to the top of the funicular railway down the mountain. Thankfully the next train down the hill managed to get us to the same connecting train at the bottom as we were originally meant to catch, panic averted.
After several changes we eventually arrived in Hiroshima and checked into the hotel. It was from here that I made the slightly frustrated post on Facebook regarding the quite frankly ridiculous charge to use the internet in the hotel. How it can possibly justify this as an extra on top of what we must be paying (for what is a rather nice room all things said).
We then left the hotel and headed for the Shukkeien Park. These formal gardens have a surround a small lake and through the entrance we were greeted by a lovely colourful set of trees in full bloom. We walked around the lake and passed at least three pairs of newly weds having their photos taken at various points and in and around the cherry blossom.
From here we made our way to the castle. It is similar in construction to those we had seen previously from the outside, steep angular walls surrounded by a moat. Inside it has a wooden castle, similar to that in Matsumoto. This, however, is a replica of the one that stood there prior to 1945.
It was a short walk from the castle to the A-Bomb dome, a gutted but preserved building on one edge of the Aioi bridge, the target site for the dropped bomb. It survived destruction due to it's position very close to the site of the aerial detonation of the weapon. The force from the explosion was downwards and the concrete clad iron structure withheld this blast, where most wooden buildings were crushed and burnt. I have to say, I found this building far more eerie than the kilometres of cemetery we walked through only last night.
We then walked over Aioi bridge and took the photo of Rolf looking back here.
This is the northern entrance to the Peace Park which leads down to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. In here a number of exhibits walk you through the events leading up to the fateful moment (8:15am August 6th 1945) in which 70,000 people were killed instantly, and would lead to the deaths of a further similar amount over the following months and years. The museum is moving and contains very graphic examples of the random destruction of this kind of warfare.
As the sun set, we walked back towards the hotel, once against passing the dome, this time taking photos of it silhouetted against the colours in the sky. A brief stop for food later and we hopped on a tram back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we head to Miyajima.
We were woken early by the trampling and clattering of a large number of people sliding wooden doors as they got up. There was a Buddhist prayer session at 6:30am that we were invited to attend and were both awake long before this due to the aforementioned noise. We chose to use the time to try to grab a little more sleep before our 7:30am breakfast time. Sadly after 15 minutes we were woken by a monk trying to bring us breakfast early. Thankfully he was a little apologetic and came back for the 7:30 time we'd said the night before. By this point we were up and dressed in the gowns provided, with our bedding folded to one side.
Breakfast consisted of an array of bean curd related things, pickles and rice. Rather nice, with less uncertainty as to the origin of the foods on offer as there was for dinner last night.
Once finished we packed and left for the bus stop, or at least we tried to but Emily made a detour via the ladies, causing us to miss the bus we needed to get to the intended train. Slightly concerned that this might put out all of our connections we waited for the next bus to take us to the top of the funicular railway down the mountain. Thankfully the next train down the hill managed to get us to the same connecting train at the bottom as we were originally meant to catch, panic averted.
After several changes we eventually arrived in Hiroshima and checked into the hotel. It was from here that I made the slightly frustrated post on Facebook regarding the quite frankly ridiculous charge to use the internet in the hotel. How it can possibly justify this as an extra on top of what we must be paying (for what is a rather nice room all things said).
We then left the hotel and headed for the Shukkeien Park. These formal gardens have a surround a small lake and through the entrance we were greeted by a lovely colourful set of trees in full bloom. We walked around the lake and passed at least three pairs of newly weds having their photos taken at various points and in and around the cherry blossom.
From here we made our way to the castle. It is similar in construction to those we had seen previously from the outside, steep angular walls surrounded by a moat. Inside it has a wooden castle, similar to that in Matsumoto. This, however, is a replica of the one that stood there prior to 1945.
It was a short walk from the castle to the A-Bomb dome, a gutted but preserved building on one edge of the Aioi bridge, the target site for the dropped bomb. It survived destruction due to it's position very close to the site of the aerial detonation of the weapon. The force from the explosion was downwards and the concrete clad iron structure withheld this blast, where most wooden buildings were crushed and burnt. I have to say, I found this building far more eerie than the kilometres of cemetery we walked through only last night.
We then walked over Aioi bridge and took the photo of Rolf looking back here.
This is the northern entrance to the Peace Park which leads down to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. In here a number of exhibits walk you through the events leading up to the fateful moment (8:15am August 6th 1945) in which 70,000 people were killed instantly, and would lead to the deaths of a further similar amount over the following months and years. The museum is moving and contains very graphic examples of the random destruction of this kind of warfare.
As the sun set, we walked back towards the hotel, once against passing the dome, this time taking photos of it silhouetted against the colours in the sky. A brief stop for food later and we hopped on a tram back to the hotel.
Tomorrow we head to Miyajima.
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