a serendipitous opening in my schedule gave me two days to get my ass down to Hirohima, a trip that had been planned and canceled several times with other friends.
the day begins at 4:45 am as i am taking the first shinkansen out to hiroshima (6am). i am tired and bleary eyed as i catch the 5:11 am yamanote line to Tokyo station. catching the first train is a lot like catching the last train, there are strange folks riding. the cars were full (surprise!) of mullet haired pimps finishing work; alcohol, cigarette and puke smelling 20 somethings coming back from a night of partying; and geezers armed with backpacks and food on their way to the racetracks. the air was thick. i sat across from a particularly feral looking individual with a giant gem-encrusted jesus belt buckle holding up a pair of distressed paint flecked jeans which probably cost him a fortune. his white boots, tight satin blazer, and strands of silver chains were offset by his shockingly streaked orange hair. ah, the morning crowd.
4 hours later, i pulled into hiroshima station.
went straight to Miyajima (a 25 min train ride plus a 10 min ferry to the island) as i was only burdened by a single backpack. the ferry ride over gave a view of the oyster farms:
the deer overrun this little island. they come right up to you and eat (or try to anyway) anything of yours they want. one of them chewed my t-shirt which meant me wearing deer saliva for the duration of the day. i was marked.
the famous vermillion gate (o-tori gate) in the sea at low tide.
itsukushima shrine, also at low tide. when the tide comes in, it's completely surrounded by water:
there was a wedding! cuz who wouldn't want to get married in a tourist attraction with a bunch of strangers taking your picture and whispering and encroaching on your special day?
i know they wee supposed to look solemn, but i think they were just bored:
after the ceremony part, they were led out to the stage to watch some bugaku:
send in the clown! er, the serious cultural dancing guy . . .
went to Daigani temple next door:
and a short hike up to Daishoin temple:
as it was up on the hill, it offered a pretty nice view. the leaves were starting to change . . .
a little buddhist communes with a picure of the dalai lama:
ok, rant time: i'm going to sound like a totally fucking idiot but those little maps they give you are SOOOOOOO not to scale. the hike up to Daishoin proved pretty easy so i decided to hike all the way up Mt. Misen to get to the other temples. this was some of the toughest hiking i've done. steep, rocky, and with no water along the way, i couldn't decide if i wanted to keep going or to turn back. i also had no idea how far i was from anything so i didn't know what to do. i ran out of water from my thermos and drank from the river (i figured at worst, i'd get a parasite or something and die, at best i was just drinking relatively safe deer piss tainted water) 3 times! to top it off, i hadn't eaten lunch which meant i was burning off the nutella sammich i'd packed and eaten on the shinkansen. this was a BAD idea. but it proved to be more than enough exercise for the day:
Sankido hall near the top. this is thought to be the only place where devil worship is practiced in japan. to me, it looked like every other shrine on the island:
at the summit of mt. misen, 535 meters above sea level:
it was a very nice view:
after another hike to the ropeway station (shishiwa) and a very nice ride down, i walked through momijidani park:
and finally got to eat! grilled oysters . . . . yum! i had 2 plates.
went to senjokaku, the main hall of hokoku shrine. it boasts a huge open floor and paintings and relics hanging from its high celings:
the adjacent five storied pagoda:
the afternoon brought the tide in so i was able to catch the shrine and gate as they are meant to be appreciated:
the view from the ferry ride back:
stayed at the hiroshima intelligent hotel annex which provided me with this very nice view from my room:
the local dish here is hiroshima okonomiyaki. i found this place called michans which i thought was more local but turns out to be a chain. its was pretty good nonetheless. started with the tomato salad:
and had the #1 special soba okonomiyaki which had squid, octopus, shrimp, fried squid strips (ika ten) cabbage, noodles, saucem and was sammiched between 2 very thin crepe like layers:
on my way back i found a little area known for okonomiyaki. should have eaten here . . . grrrr
the next day, i made my way to shukkeien garden, built in the 17th C:
this was a very beautiful and impressive garden:
with lots of little signs of life:
also checked out HIroshima castle:
view from the top:
and saved all the atomic bomb stuff for last. when i went to nagasaki a couple years ago, i think i was more in shock than anything else about all the horrors of the bombings. i was unprepared then so i braced myself this time. i think i fared pretty well; but it was also packed with students on school trips running around and screaming "yabai!!!" all the time so it was easy to balance my sadness with annoyance.
a-bomb dome:
the bridge connecting to the memorial peace park from across the way:
some students get in some studying while filling out their scavenger hunt forms:
the memorial hall for the victims:
it began to shit storm for a brief time which sent everyone in the park, myself included, into the museum for shelter. as a result, the place was absolutely packed, making it difficult to see things and take sufficient time to get sense of the gravity of the situation. with high school kids shrieking "yabai!! yabai!!" the whole time, it seemed more like a haunted house than a museum. a british woman behind me remarked, "it's amazing how they all just got up and went home after the bomb."
the museum houses all kinds of artifacts like blood stained clothes, pieces of skin and black fingernails, charred remains of a student's bento box, glass fragments which embedded themselves into the side of buildings before being melted in, horrific photos of victims, black rain damaged clothes and buildings, and clocks and watches stopped exactly at 8:15 am when the bomb was dropped:
shin's tricycle:
sadako's paper cranes:
the weather had improved after the shower and i was glad to be outside again:
the centotaph for the a-bomb victims:
the flame of peace:
the children's peace monument:
the atomic bomb memorial mound:
the peace bell:
there are TONS of statues and monuments in this park. according to the map, there are 66 memorial pieces just in this park area. and most of them have the word peace, bomb, and memorial. one of the most interesting things for me was this tree. its a phoenix tree that was exposed to the a-bomb and the inside, the pith was completely burned out but the tree managed to survive and continues to grow, the scar getting less and less visible. nature is truly powerful.
the gates of peace:
the front of the museum:
as i made my way back towards the station, i ran into tupac. turns out he's not dead. just hanging out in front of a hip hop clothing store in hiroshima!
last meal in hiroshima! local delicacy of conger eel on rice:
and butter saute'd oysters:
what a beautiful city. wish i could have stayed longer . . .
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