Hiroshima

This past weekend, Travy, Katie and I made the long journey down to Hiroshima. It was three and a half hours on the train to Himeji, then another hour on the Shinkansen from there to Hiroshima. The trip home on Saturday/Sunday was about twelve hours longer, but I’ll get to that in a bit.

Hiroshima is a new city, mainly because it was completely obliterated by the atomic bomb in 1946. Every American knows about the atomic bomb, but it was something completely different to see the twisted atomic dome and the human shadows imprinted on concrete steps and the burned articles of children’s clothing. Each artifact was accompanied by a heart-breaking story like this: ‘Saori’s mother went looking for her after the bomb fell. She found a body clutching this lunch-box to its chest. She was able to recognize Saori by her favorite lunchbox.’

I went to Hiroshima not knowing what to expect, but the museum and the preserved atomic dome did a good job in conferring the horror of the bomb and its aftermath. Prior to this trip, I didn’t know that the citizens of Hiroshima weren’t warned about the bomb despite the protests of the scientists who worked to develop it (as the U.S. had warned other civilians of bombing raids), that Hiroshima had never been bombed before so that the U.S. could take notes on the destructive powers of the bomb, or that the U.S. had considered using an atomic bomb in the Korean War. The entire experience was shocking and emotionally draining.

Fortunately for my sensitive spirit, this trip wasn’t all about horror and war. We also took the ferry out to Miyajima – an island famous for its ‘floating’ gate and temple (the tide was out when we arrived, so it wasn’t exactly ‘floating’). The island is populated by tame deer that are greedy for bland wafers and, apparently, monkeys and wild apes. Though we paid the ludicrous 2000\ to take the rope-way to the top of the mountain, no monkeys or apes were spotted. We did, however, see some really funny signs warning about the dangers of looking a monkey in the eye.

That night (here is where the LONG journey part comes in) we left the island fairly late. It was around 8 PM when we finally got to the train station and bought our shinkansen tickets. After some sprinting for the train and some nomadic traveling up and down the length of it looking for seats, we were settled and on our way to Osaka. Aaaah. Sigh of relief! However, when we got to Osaka, our train for Tajima didn’t depart until 10 PM. As we were arriving at the final stop of Fukuchiyama, we realized that there were NO MORE TRAINS THAT NIGHT. Aaaah! Scream of horror and frustration! It was midnight, freezing cold, and the train station was going to close in one hour, so sleeping on the floor was out of the question. Luckily for us, an elderly Japanese couple took pity on our plight and helped us search out a hotel room. The first two were full, the third (and final) hotel, thankfully, had a room that could sleep three people. I fell onto my expensive futon and gratefully passed-out. I didn’t get home until 12:30 the following afternoon.

The atomic dome.

Fortunately for us, we didn't encounter any of these angry monkeys.

Some of Miyajima's tame deer share a nuzzle.

The famous 'floating' gate of Miyajima, at sunset.