Hiroshima

Yesterday, we went to Hiroshima.

I'm doing this post in the morning, because unfortunately Blogger.com was down last night, so I couldn't post it then.

We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) to get to Hiroshima. It felt in many ways like a combination of an airplane and a train.

The seats and windows reminded me of a plane, and they even had things like the tray tables and carts selling snacks and drinks periodically.

Our first destination within Hiroshima was the Atomic Bomb Dome. It is the preserved remains of a building 160m from the epicentre of the blast. Most of Hiroshima was rebuilt after the blast, but this building in particular was selected as a monument to remind people of the damage dealt that day.

In addition, there were several other monuments and memoriums nearby.

The Peace Flame. It has burned nonstop since it was lit in 1964.

This one is called the Children's Peace Monument. It was created in honour of a girl who got lukemia and created hundreds of origami paper cranes before she died at age 12.

The Memorial Tower to Mobilized Students.

I'm heading out now, but I will finish this post later, as well as write one for today.

-----Update----

In Hiroshima, we met an Australian gentleman named Ben, who we explored the area around the A-Bomb Dome with, and we entered the museum with, however we had to part ways there.

Within, the museum was equal parts interesting and sad. It had many interesting sections dedicated to history surrounding the atomic bomb and WWII. It also had many tragic tales of survivors and families of victims who had suffered from the Hiroshima blast, as well as gruesome detail of the effects of radiation and heat from a nuclear blast.

A model of Hiroshima before and after the blast.

Iron girders bent and ripped by the force of the blast.

Clothes recovered from various children that fell to the blast, dressing a wire dummy.

As we left, we saw a group of school children singing.

After that, we went to Miyajima. We had to take a ferry to get there.

Miyajima is a fairly unique shrine; it has a torii out in the water, however when the tide is at its lowest, the water recedes out so that you can walk through it.

The entire temple is actually built to accommodate the tides, being built on stilts to keep it dry. The temple grounds flood and dry out with the tides.

It also had some other interesting sights about it, there were torii to get in on land as well as the one in the water; also, some of the lion guardians here were more elaborate than those I've seen elsewhere, the tail in particular.

I also want to mention that there were deer here as well, who were also quite friendly, though not quite as populous as Nara's.

We had to rush things, as it was a busy day, and we did not want to miss the shinkansen getting back.

And finally, as the Japanese have learned, anything can be made better with a cartoon mascot. The mascot for Miyajima is called "Drops"; she is the girl with deer ears on the right.