Today we travelled by bullet train to Hiroshima. The journey took about one hour and 45 minutes and was fast, smooth and relaxing. I love the fact that the expectation on these trains is that you will be calm and quiet. Our guide said that if you make too much noise, the Japanese people in your car (carriage), will not say anything but will just stare at you. We had reserved seats and nearly all of our group were going on this excursion to Hiroshima. I relaxed and listened to my audio book. Once we had arrived at Hiroshima, we were greeted by another coach and driver. From the station we were transported to the Ferry Terminal to take the ferry across to Miyajima Island, a World Heritage listed site, due to the lush and expansive natural forests and mountains, the large Itsukushima shrine, first built in 593 and the magnificent O-torii Gate which is a huge gate that sits in the water and was built in 1875. We enjoyed the morning here exploring the seaside walking path that led us to the Shrine and O-torii gate. There were many over-friendly deer and although there seemed to be many people here it didn’t feel crowed at all. Another interesting “Monk Fact” from Miyajima Island is that this is thought to be the place where a monk, late in the 18th century, invented a tool for scooping rice and this became what we now use as a spatula! There were many carved wooden spatulas for sale in the various souvenir shops on the island. We were given the opportunity to stop and have some lunch on the island, and were very excited and happy to find a restaurant which had okonomi-yaki, a traditional Japanese pancake that is made in front of you on a hot-plate, on the menu. It is made up of a batter, cabbage, onion, bacon, noodles and then you add whatever you want. The boys had theirs with shrimp and Trudy and I opted for cheese. They were delicious! After lunch we returned to the mainland and our coach took us to The Peace Park Memorial and Museum. Here we reflected on the terrible destruction and tragedy that occurred to the Japanese people living in Hiroshima when the atomic bomb was dropped in 1945. We had visited this site back in 2010, but this second visit still left us reflecting on the terrible cost of wars. From here we went into the Hiroshima Peace Park Museum. There were many, many school groups and tourist groups visiting which made it very difficult for viewing many of the tragic displays. As Rob and I had visited before we weren’t too concerned but felt for our fellow travellers as many struggled to get close to the displays and read the information. Once again, the Japanese are showing that despite being a highly organised society they are not coping well with the overwhelming number of tourists descending on their country. We had nearly two hours here before heading back to the Hiroshima Station, where we boarded another bullet train to take us back to Osaka. Another relaxing, fast ride back meant that we were back in the hotel, just after 7pm. A big day but an enjoyable one.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment