Date: 26th October 2024
Travelled: Fukuyama to Hiroshima
Visited: Miyajima Island and Hiroshima Peace Park
Stayed: Hotel Kuretakeso, Hiroshima
Budget: 21 days @ $XX per day
As the sun rises we do our normal walk around the streets of Fukuyama, then have breakfast and pack up our bags once again. Hiroshima tonight.
Itโs a two hour drive to Miyajimaguchi because it takes us 40 minutes to escape the morning traffic in Fukuyama. Then we transfer to a ferry for the passage to Miyajima Island or Shrine Island.
Weโve done a ferry ride or two during our travels, this takes only 15 minutes. Pictured belowโฆPam chats to Serena and we catch our first site of the Toril Gate of Itsukushima Shrine.
Off the ferry we follow Serena to the entry to the Itsukushima Shrine pictured below, the pagoda in the background adds to the scene. All the front and verandah have been extensively rebuilt. The green is not grass but sea weed.
The Toril Gate stands majestically just above low tide level, which it is this morning Serena tells us itโs good luck to walk out and touch it, but a photo from here will do.
Some random photos. Every second shop sells wooden spoons of all sizes. Serena tells us itโs the Monjayaki town symbol ?
Every second cafe sells small flat cakes filled with red bean paste. This is one such shop with an old automated machine churning them out. Pam and I opted for the far less popular custard and chocolate filled variety. We get a couple for Ron, later on that is. Score 3 stars only
Serena recommended the Okonomiyaki (savoury pancake) for lunch. Itโs a huge concoction based on a pancake topped with all sorts of vegetables noodles and seafood flipped over on a scrabbled egg, then oysters and a sweet BBQ on top. Thought Pam was going to have a stroke when she saw how much BBQ sauce it was drowned in. At least one of us enjoyed it.
Back to the ferry then bus and on to Hiroshima. On our way, Serena gives us the Japanese perspective of the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Japan. Itโs understandably emotional given the loss of life here. The bus drops us next to Aioi Bridge only a few hundred metres from โground zeroโ. Itโs only a short walk on to the Peace Park Memorial/Museum.
Some views of the Genbaku Dome from the river and the memorial/museum.
After spending a couple of hours walking the river and going through the memorial/museum everyone is ready for the hotel. The memorial/museum is packed with people and itโs very slow going. It can be best described as a time line from 8.15am on the 6th August 1945 and the aftermath. With a heavy focus on woman and children it seems.
Itโs only my opinion but after Pearl Harbour and the death toll of the US service men and woman in the Pacific theatre of war approaching (60,000) the United States intended giving them a bloody nose and enforce pacification.
Anyway our time in Hiroshima is limited as we travel on tomorrow. We do find a small bar, its specialty French wine and German beer. Pam describes it as the best wine since OZ. The pilsener was excellent and the jazz very relaxing after the chaos of so many people. Our walk in the evening and again in the morning leave us impressed by Hiroshima. Its wide boulevards and parks are very impressive.
Michael + Pam
2 thoughts on “Hiroshima, Japan ๐ฏ๐ต 2024”
Great report ๐ very impressed with Pam’s chopsticks handling
Did you tell Serena about Hay โฆ