We woke up early and checked out of the hotel. We made our last use of the Osaka transit system to take the loop line to Osaka-eki then on to Shin-Osaka eki. We boarded the shinkansen to Hiroshima. It took about 90 minutes to get there. We left Hiroshima eki and walked to the peace park. During this phase of the trip I decided to curse Mountain Equipment Co-op for not having backpacks that fit me. Charles was laughing at me and my “large size” backpack.
On the way to the peace park we made a brief stop at Hiroshima-jo. It was around now that I noticed that the bomb was still part of the public consciousness. There were references to it around. Every tourist information plaque mentioned the A-bomb.
After the castle, which we didn't really explore, we made our way to the peace park.
Along the way we saw a car drive past. I noticed that the license plate was simply 7. I giggled and said '7'. Charles said, 'Yeah that was a RX-7'. I said back, 'Didn't you see the license plate?'. 'No'. It was just “7”'. We were making comments on some people's egos. At that moment a RX-8 with the license plate '8' drove past. We shook our heads and laughed.
We found the A-bomb dome and were totally awed by it. We stood and looked at it for a long time. The more I stared at it the more I could feel that I was having to fight back tears. There are a several things that can make most people feel like a bag of shit. Seeing this building up close is one of them. Anyone who is not seriously affected by this needs a hard slap. As of this writing it has been nearly a month since we were there and I am having trouble writing this because of the emotions running around my head. The place messed me up pretty good.
One of the other things I wanted to see in the area was the hypocenter. This is the point where the bomb actually exploded. It was marked by a small stone monument on a back street and not no one seemed to care about it.
We walked through the park and stopped at the cenotaph. It contains what looks like a coffin. What is in the coffin is a list of the people who died in the bombing. While we were there we saw a police officer walk by. He stopped in front of the cenotaph and did a very long and deep bow before moving on.
We sat on a bench and rested for a while. We both commented on how it felt very strange to be there.
After resting we started the trip to Miyajima. To get there we had to go to Miyajimaguchi eki which is pretty far out of town. Getting there was a little convoluted. From where we were we had to walk for about 30 minutes to a streetcar station to catch the streetcar over to Hiroden-nishi-hiroshima eki. From there we took the Hiroden-miyajima line to Miyajimaguchi eki. From there we had to walk down the street to the ferry dock. Along the way we went to 7-11 and got lunch.
We got lucky on the timing of the ferry and got there just as boarding was getting underway. We took seats on the second level outside and sat down to watch. the water go past.
Along the way we saw a lot of floating platforms out in the water. I was puzzling over these for a long time. I figured out what they were over dinner when Charles mentioned that the area is famous for oysters.
We landed on Miyajima and saw the hotel bus waiting for us. We hopped on and sat back for a thrilling ride up the side of a mountain, whipping around hairpin turns on streets only wide enough for one car with long drops just a foot away. The driver had run the route many times and had the bus under perfect control.
When we arrived at the hotel (Miyajima Grand Hotel), a porter met us to take our bags. Did I mention that this was a top of the line super-duper fancy and expensive hotel? offered to carry the bags ourselves but he insisted on taking them. We handed them over and saw him almost collapse under the weight. He put on a brave face and carried them away. When we saw him again during check-in he gave us a dirty look as only a Japanese person can give.
At the checkin counter we were helped by a young lady named Ishii. Her English was nearly perfect. After we signed in and got our key she took us over to a table and showed us a map of the island and all the tourist spots. She explained that while the hotel is very close to the ferry dock the main street is closed to cars so the bus had to take the road up the mountain.
She then took us to our room. She made us tea and fed us apple slices. She explained the rooms amenities. She also took our dinner and breakfast orders. She then looked at us and said she would go get the hotel's biggest yukatta (robes). She grabbed the ones that were already in the room and left. A few minutes later she returned with some larger ones.
She left us then and so we went and sat in the sitting area and looked out the window. From our room we could almost see Itsukushima-jinja (the shrine that is built out over the ocean).
After relaxing for a while we decided to explore the island. On our way out we noticed that the hotel has automatice massage chairs. That was nice. We spent a few minutes getting squeezed and prodded by the chairs before moving on.
Our first stop on our journey of exploration was a fried-things-on-sticks place. Charles got some chicken and seafood things on sticks and I got chicken and corn-on-the-cob (not deep fried). We took in the sights of the area and looked into the small tourist shops. We also saw the worlds largest rice scoop. Charles saw a place that was selling grilled oysters in their shells. He almost broke down and bought some but didn't because oysters featured prominently in our dinner orders.
It was approaching 5 o'clock by this time and the stores were closing up. We started looking more at the tourist spots: the temples and pagodas and such.
We returned to the hotel around 7 and went to the restaurant for dinner. The meals were included in the price of the room.
What followed was probably the most photogenic meal I have ever eaten. It was amazingly beautiful and the taste was devine. Portions were minuscule but there were 13 courses. I have never had a meal that good before. After dinner we retired to the room and I got to use one of those toilets that washes your butt for you. That was... interesting.
We went out again to explore the island by night. The place was not nearly as interesting as during the day. We were both tired and sore at this point so we went back to the hotel to partake of the hot bath.
We grabbed the yukatta that Ishii-san had brought us. Mine barely fit and Charles' didn't fit at all. We went down to the hot bath rooms and got undressed. We then went over to the wash stations and got cleaned up. We then got into the hot bath and sighed with relaxation. At that point all the Japanese people got up and left. I guess they didn't want to be bathing with us hairy, uncouth foreigners.
After the bath we went back to the room and kicked back for a while. We watched TV and caught the episode of 'Eigo do shabera naito' where the female host was leaving the show. We also watched a game show in which contestants had to make randomly selected audience members laugh. We both decided that the Japanese have no clue about good humour. After watching TV for a while we decided to hit the hay.
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