When I arrived early Tuesday morning by bus it was still raining heavily. I proceeded with the usual routine which consisted of dropping off my heavy bag in a storage locker along with anything I didn’t require to locate my hostel. Umbrella in hand It took me an hour or so to locate my hostel by which time I was already drenched. I ran into a small problem when trying to check in: The lady at the counter wasn’t certain how to swipe my credit card without it asking for my secure pin and I couldn’t for the life of me remember what my pin was.
I didn’t have any cash on me so I headed off in search of a machine that would accept my foreign card all the while cursing myself for not having taken more money out when I was still on Tokyo.
I walked around for several hours in the rain trying different bank machines, postal offices and stores in the hopes that one of them would accept my debit card. Using my debit card in Tokyo had not been a problem as there were always international debit machines located in almost every train station.
Having been unable to locate a debit machine that would accept my card, I finally decided to go back to the hostel and attempt what I believed to be my pin. While walking in the rain trying debit machine after debit machine I also kept trying to remember what combination I had chosen for my credit card pin number.
Arriving at the hostel I told the worker that I thought I had remembered my pin and we attempted the transaction one more time: success! I checked in; cooked a quick lunch of consisting of a boiled egg with instant ramen noodles. After having been soaked in the rain for hours a hot bowl of instant spicy noodles with a boiled egg felt like soul replenishing food.
After having taken a shower I threw on some beach clothes: A t shirt, shorts and a pair of slippers. I didn’t see the point of trying to stay dry in a heavy rain. Despite the heavy rain it was still quite warm outside: I headed off on foot in the general direction of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial.
Hiroshima has several trams running throughout the city but from what I had read walking from my hostel to the museum would only take a half hour. I often enjoy walking in the rain as it provides a different perspective on a city than walking on sunny days. There are less people on the streets and you get greater sense of solitude.
I found the peace museum without too much effort. I was still a little depressed about having left Tokyo only a few days before and the mood continued as I entered memorial park, which is just outside the Museum. I toured the park snapping pictures in the rain and then entered the museum. You can read about the experience here. Needless to say I believe most visitors the Hiroshima Peace Museum leave feeling very moved by the experience. I went from the museum back to my hostel and just relaxed for the rest of the day, the clouds ans sights I had just seen weighing heavily on my mind.
The following morning I wanted to take advantage of this beautiful sunny day to go explore different parts of the city. I started by walking to a bridge not far from the hostel and noticed a sign for the “promenade of peace” which lazily follows one of the cities waterways.
I wanted to try and make it to the coast line to breathe in some of the ocean air. In the pictures taken from along the promenade below you can also see a small loading dock for boats along one of the many Hiroshima inlets/rivers/canals:
It was shortly after I had started walking along the promenade of peace that I stumbled upon this little fellow, a fairly long snake. My initial reaction was to approach it but then I paused and thought to myself: You don’t know if it’s poisonous or not, might not be smart to approach it. I wanted to try and get a local Japanese person to look at it but none were near me. I watched as this two to three foot long snake slowly slithered into the bushes:
I walked for a few hours and I could see myself getting closer to the coast yet I never managed to reach it. It was approaching noon and with the sun shining brightly the cool sunny morning was turning into an incredibly warm and humid afternoon. Just before turning around and heading back into the city I stumbled upon this Torii (the little wooden gate) and monument shown in the pictures below. From the small Japanese map beside it, it appears like the cement marker was used as either a trading or landing post or possibly as a small light house. The language on the drawn map was in Japanese with no English translation so was unable to tell for certain. Beside it you can see the small wooden Torri and shrine. I dropped a few Yen coins as an offering and turned back towards the city. I also included a couple of shots of some garden tree’s discovered while walking back towards the city center through random alleys. I thought they had a nice “Japanese” feel to them:
While walking through the various city streets on my way back to the hostel I stumbled upon several small memorials. Some of the more interesting ones to me are included below. Here we had a French red cross memorial. As with many other memorials around the city bottles of water are places near, on and around them. There were also fishes swimming in the small man made pond. Many of the victims that survived the initial blast but later died cried out for water until their very last breathes. You can read why in my post about the museum. The bomb also killed many of the doctors and nurses that were in the city at the time, which would of been the ones who were best suited to help the survivors.
Below we have part of a remaining wall that has glass embedded (stuck) into it. Glass from windows was thrown at incredibly high speeds. You may have difficulty seeing the small pieces of glass because of the reflection in the picture but the bend metal window frame is evidence of the force unleashed by the bomb.
Hiroshima city is linked by several trams lines. I seem to recall that one of the trains was from the post bombing era but I could be mistaken regarding that fact. I quickly tried to research it (by quickly I mean less than 5 minutes) and didn’t find any information indicating that this was the case. Regardless here are a few shots of the different types of trams operating. It’s a slow, affordable and fun way to see the city!
The current Hiroshima city is modern and vibrant. Almost all of the buildings that survived the bombing have been replaced. The people have moved on yet some of the younger survivors at the time of the bomb still wander the streets. I saw more foreigners in Hiroshima than anywhere else in Japan. I leave you with this final picture outside a small temple which was across the street from my hostel. I don’t think it requires any explanation:
I left Hiroshima the following morning on the first train towards Shimonoseki. It was incredibly soothing to watch the lush green country side pass by as school children and workers boarded and disembarked at various stations. The whole experience underlined by the fact that this was the last train I’d be taking in Japan for the foreseeable future….
