Hiroshima starts with a great adventure: Shinkansen Time - the Japanese high speed train also known as bullet train.
It looks fast from the outside, it is fast! You can see our delight... ;-)
We love bounteousness! What a zebra!
They also have trams, somehow similar to Basel...
That's why you shouldn't miss Hiroshima when you are in Japan: It tells tragic human history!!! You need to know about this and do everything to prevent a repetition!
Here you can see the commonly
called "Atomic Bomb Dome" or "A-Bomb Dome", the former "Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall". The ruin
serves as a memorial to the people who were killed in the atomic bombing of
Hiroshima on 6 August 1945 - the first
atomic bomb to be used in war. Over 70,000 people were killed instantly, and
another 70,000 suffered fatal injuries from the radiation. The A-Bomb Dome was the only structure left standing near the bomb’s hypocentre.
The
location of Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park was once the city’s busiest downtown
commercial and residential district. The park was built on an open field that
was created by the explosion. Today there are a number of memorials and
monuments, museums, and lecture halls, which draw over a million visitors
annually. The purpose of the Peace
Memorial Park is to not only memorialize the victims, but also to establish the
memory of nuclear horrors and advocate world peace.
Some impressions of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.
Here you can see the Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall known as the A-Bomb Dome today.
...
We decide to escape the city and head to the Miyajima Island.
While
officially named Itsukushima, the island is more commonly referred to as
Miyajima, Japanese for "Shrine Island". This is because the island is
so closely related to its key shrine, Itsukushima Shrine, in the public's mind.
Like the Torii Gate, the shrine's main buildings are built over water. The Torii
Gate, which at high tide seems to float on the water, is ranked as one of
Japan's three best views.
Japanese seem to love deers. Also here, wild deers everywhere. But in comparison with Nara, you should not feed or touch the animals. But they are intrusive hungry beasts...
The island is also known for their oysters... Yes, we tryed them...
While enjoying the promenade walk, two Japanese women in kimono address us - they ask us if we would like to participate in a short photo-shoot for their new broschure. It's a Japanese cultural activity centre and located in an old temple site, very beautiful! The idea is that we dress up in kimono and do a tea ceremony and calligraphy course. We get to do it all for free and it turns out to be a great experience! We have a blast, the whole team is very kind and we laugh a lot. So next time you're in Miyajima maybe you can see our faces in that broschure, lol...
Here you can see Noëmi's kimono...
And here we are "Japanese style" in kimono :-)
The traditional tea ceremony - very interesting and full of rules!
Calligraphy - so difficult!
And here we are with the Okeiko Japan team - thanks guys!
Back in Hiroshima it's time to try out their food speciality number one: okonomiyaki. It's sort of a pancake with vegetables (or whatever else you want in/on it) and super delicious :-)
Japan was a blast and we absolutely love it! Now it's back to Hongkong where it all started in March - our last days are coming!
