Hiroshima 24th April

 

Our last stop before getting back to Tokyo. And it was particularly loud and juddering from about 4 or 5am. Unfortunate as we had an early start, our tour leaving at 7.30, because the shiop was leaving about 4pm. I’m not sure why this was, our usual departure time has been around 6 or 7pm. Possibly because we have further to go to Tokyo?

Anyway, our first stop was the Atomic Bomb Dome, the ruins of a building very near ground zero, and across the river from this the peace park and memorial. These were fine, and the larger scale and more open space was more pleasant than Nagasaki.

Then we filed into the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. Similar to the one at Nagasaki, it was largely artifacts and accounts of the damage done at the time and subsequently, and some information on nuclear testing and disarmament since then.

After this we went to Mirajima, which is on all the shops, though it’s properly Itsukushima island. This was a twenty minute drive east of the city centre and then a ten minute ferry ride. The ferry terminal on the island is surrounded by streets and shops, and it’s a short walk east to the shrine which is the main visitor attraction. This is a collection of temple buildings painted orange-red on stilts and a large Torii shrine gate set in the water a short distance out.

 

We walked around the temple but Lynn got impatient with the guide and the group, so we went ahead and walked through the shopping district. That was a mixture of souvenir shops (selling rubbish) and food shops selling seafood – I got a couple of deep fried oysters on a stick. The area is famous for its oysters and the bay is full of oyster beds (I don’t know how this works as it’s also a fairly busy port). We avoided the semi-tame scavenging deer and caught the ferry back with the group.

The final stop was a hotel where we were given a set menu Japanese lunch, a pleasant assortment but not filling. This got us back to the ship before 3pm.