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2006-04-japan
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2006-04-07
Travel to Hiroshima, visit A-Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Museum, then on to Miyajima Island, photograph floating Torii.
I travelled with a Hikari Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka and from there on to Hiroshima. The second leg was weird in the sense that it seemed the train was in a tunnel for almost half the trip! And most of the time outside the tunnel you see urbanization, with some agriculture here and there. That made me realize how crowded Japan is. The guide in Kyoto mentioned that Japan is about as big as the state of California, but with 5 times as many people, and less livable space.
The visit to the Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima was very impressive. It is in very close to where the bomb exploded, less than 200 meters I think (and 600 meters above the ground). The museum is quite good, and it does give some sense of what the dropping of an atomic bomb does to a city. It is still hard to imagine what it must be like to be in it, that's fortunate I suppose. They have interesting artefact's, mostly clothing and possessions, most notable the watches stopped at 8:15 when the bomb exploded. And photos from before and after the explosion which show how devastating it was, just a handful of concrete buildings (the shells) were left standing, the rest all rubble. And it also shocking to read that lots of writing and photographs were censored during the occupation, until almost 10 years later, including documentation about the damage that radiation does to people.
It is amazing though to leave the museum and be in the middle of a bustling city. I suppose that holds for lots of war torn cities, but this time the contrast seemed stronger.
Around 4 I started back to the station to get to Miyajima Island. I had some trouble finding the train but since I looked lost a Japanese man helped me out. It turned out that we had to take the same train so we chatted for a bit. Miyajima station is only 20 minutes and from there it is only a couple of minutes to the ferry. The Japanese Rail Pass is great, it even works on the ferry because they are all run by the same company. The ryokan was a 5 minute walk from the ferry, so I had plenty of time to check in and go for a walk before diner. It was a beautiful sunset too.
