Hiroshima

Guess where we are.  It's not Melbourne!
Photo taken from the bus

In Hiroshima, there are tourist hop on hop off buses that leave from the station. There are three routes, all of which go to the Atomic Bomb Dome and to the Peace Memorial Park.  Otherwise they go to slightly different places. I have to say that they are not very expensive (around $AU8 for a day pass). But you can use your Japan Rail Pass (if you have one) so using the tourist buses cost us nothing.

We started out at the castle:

Lindsey at the castle steps

Looking out over Hiroshima from the top

Looking over the moat

Then we moved on to the Atomic Bomb Dome.  The atomic bomb detonated over the building, 600m up. It didn't do it much good!

There wasn't much left of central Hiroshima after the bomb had gone off and they set to to rebuild it very quickly after the dust had settled. Now you would hardly know, except that in the Peace Memorial park there are many memorials, statues, fountains and other marks of respect and remembrance.

Looking towards the Eternal Flame, which is in the centre of the waterway 

There is a dedicated children's memorial and there were many groups of school children around it. When we got there there was a class of children dressed in blue, playing their recorders in front of the memorial. When they had finished they bowed, and moved aside for the next school group to take their place.

We visited the Peace Museum after wandering through the park.

I have been asked if I found it sad and I didn't, not really.  I found it all very peaceful and gentle.  I didn't need to see the relics that were left behind after the bomb to know that dropping any kind of bomb on a city, and especially a nuclear bomb, is not a Good Plan. I am glad I did see them, though.

We had lunch in a Coco Curry, where they do vegetarian curries. I didn't have a curry, vegetable or otherwise.  I had a chicken caesar salad :-D

Sandy, with the vegetarian-specific menu
Photo by Lindsey

After lunch we hit the shops, had coffee in a Tully's coffee shop, took the tourist bus all around its circuit to back to the station, sorted out our tickets for Friday and walked back to our little flat, via the supermarket.  Vegetable stew for dinner, with little steaks on top for Lindsey and me.

It was a good day. The weather was lovely and the Peace Memorial Park is beautiful.  Oh, and I managed nearly 15,000 steps and 13 floors.  I hadn't thought about climbing up the castle stairs when I said I didn't expect to get many floors!

The Three Amigos in Hiroshima
Photo by Sandy