Day 10 - Hiroshima

I didn`t sleep well yesterday at all. I could hear everything: doors opening and closing all night, people walking around, running water and people in the washroom. The walls are like paper and the surroundings are so cramped. This is definitely not the place for someone who is claustrophobic at all.

I got up at 6 am and decided to go to Hiroshima early. I caught the 7:42 Nozomi that arrives in Hiroshima at 9:04. This train moves at 300km/hr so it went about 400km in a little over an hour. I guess for the price you pay its worth it as I can go to Hiroshima for the day.

It is raining yet again here. It is definitely starting to get depressing. I`m hoping that it`s not going to rain in Hiroshima today. Arriving at the station I realize that Hiroshima is actually quite small and its possible to see almost everything in one day. I ended up getting a day pass at the station that allowed me to use the streetcars and ferry to Miyajima all day for 850 yen.

I ended up at the A-bomb dome which was basically a building that had been destroyed in 1945 when the but was preserved in that state as a reminder of the past. I continued past the building into Memorial Park, saw the Cenotaph for A-bomb victims, children`s peace monument and inside the Peace Memorial Museum.

Visiting this museum was a very enlightening experience. There was a model of Hiroshima before the bombing and one after the bombing looked like the city had been decimated. Only 4-5 buildings were partially standing. There were 2 watches on display that show the exact time of the bombing as the heat from the bomb stopped them from running at 8:45am. There were also photos of the victims. It was quite horrible. People that were burned all over their bodies, limbs falling off and melted skin. I would like to say that I can handle a lot but I couldn`t stay there very long it was very depressing and making me sick to my stomach. It was incredibly sad to see something like this but it was a truly fantastic learning experience.

From here I went to the island of Miyajima just off the coast of Hiroshima to see the water shrine, Itsukushiwa and the O-terri gate sitting in the water. The ferry ride was only 5 minutes and the island is rather small. It only takes 10 minutes to walk to the shine from the ferry dock.

The first thing I noticed when I got off the boat was the fact that there were deer everywhere. They`re wild deer but are so used to people feeding them that they will just follow you around.

O-Torri gate is massive. It`s 16 meters tall and at low tide at about 1:30pm you are able to walk out to it. At high tide its about 4 ft submerged. It was nice to be able to walk along the coast at low tide and go into the water. As I was walking I saw 2 women digging for clams in the mud.

The shrine itself is beautiful. It too is also built in the water at high tide. Apparently when these were built it was believed that the island itself was a god and so they did not build on it. This shrine is larger than any shrine I have seen so far. It was built with gaps in the floor boards to allow water to pass through and drain away.

I walked up to Daisho-in temple and walked around for about an hour before returning to Hiroshima where I saw Hiroshima castle.