Spring in Japan 2008 - Hiroshima

Hiroshima was very cold and chilly when I got there. Much to my surprise actually as the cold and chilly weather didn’t seem to match much with that of the geography of Japan. In Japan, it should get warmer as you go south but it didn’t happen that way when I was there. And so I wasn’t to the least bit prepared with winter clothings to keep me warm at that time.


I arrived in Hiroshima a couple of days after staying in Okazaki. I went there with Kenji via one of Japan’s fastest bullet trains ever available, the Nozomi bullet train. The Nozomi train ride seemed quite all right to me actually with nothing much taking place whilst I was onboard the train. The landscape the train had passed by was not very interesting either, yet I was kept excited all through. It took us about 3 hours in total to reach Hiroshima. And 3 hours is not a long time at all considering an addition of 6 more hours if we had traveled to Hiroshima by bus.


Kenji and I arrived at the Hiroshima JR Station at noon and found plenty of foreigners around as compared to the other JR stations that we have been to so far. The JR Station in Hiroshima in itself appeared rather big, new and spacious to me; something quite different from the others that I have up till then seen. Feeling quite tired despite a journey that was not very long, that same afternoon, Kenji and I left the shinkansen station immediately via a cab for our booked hotel accommodation.


At the hotel we got ourselves checked-in and were then led to our allocated room. Our hotel room was clean and nice but really small I must say. The bathroom and toilet were western (yay!) and combined (yay! #2), and the shampoo, conditioner and shower foam that were in the bathroom were surprisingly in bottles of 750ml each. I was surprised by the hotel’s generosity (750ml per bottle is really a lot if you know what I’m talking about!), but of course I was really happy with what I got. Next, I got myself changed and jumped onto bed before I turned on the TV.

On TV was a program hosted by two guys who were discussing about A-Bomb victims in Hiroshima. Apparently quite a number of A-Bomb sufferers were still alive then and issues relating to the World War II were still not considered history yet over there. On the TV program, some of Hiroshima’s elderly citizens were shown making claims of post-war physiological effects. Others though were merely making complaints of insufficient welfare benefits to help them fight off their cancer illnesses, which they claimed were transmitted to them via the a-bomb radiation that took place years ago.

That same afternoon that we arrived, Kenji and I went for an exceptionally long walk around the city. Cherry blossoms were blooming so beautifully just like the ones I saw in Okazaki, and Hiroshima appeared like one of those postcard images I would see illustrating spring in Japan. That day Kenji and I managed to check out quite a number of places around the hotel we were staying in and found out that everything we had planned for in Hiroshima seemed to be working our way - I was certainly glad for that. Within the next two days however we managed to check out most parts of the city that were affected by the World War.

Below is a summary of what I did in my 4-day visit in Hiroshima. Just in case you might want to know, most places in Hiroshima that I saw were a great reflection of the World War II. For me, it was simply phenomenal to be standing at the exact area where the atomic bombing once took place. Many times, pictures, maps and accounts of the war that I came across in my walks over there had brought tears to my eyes. Although I grew up celebrating the drop of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima all my life, stories of the aftermath of the bombing that were retold and displayed in places I visited in Hiroshima broke my heart. For the first time ever, I think, I felt sorry, mournful and sombre for the Japanese. The impact of the A-Bomb was indeed 'that' moving and evident - I could really visualize the day the atomic bomb had hit the area.

Anyways, this is the summary of how we spent our time in Hiroshima as mentioned in this post earlier. So, in our 4-day visit in Hiroshima, Kenji and I...

1. visited the Hiroshima castle

2. walked to the A-Bomb Dome

3. walked around Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park and then checked out the museum the next day

4. shopped and dined at Hon-douri Arcade

5. tried out hiroshima-yaki

6. moved to Hiroshima Bay and then stayed in at the Grand Prince Hotel

7. played games at a game arcade

8. spent more than half a day exploring Miyajima

9. had oysters for lunch!

In all, I find Hiroshima quite all right. I think it’s a lovely city and a good place to live in. Perhaps? I don’t know. I was there for a very short time…but I like Hiroshima without doubt!

References:
Hiroshima, Present Day Hiroshima, Available [Online]: http://www.hiroshima.ws/modern.html, 18/11/2008.

Wikipedia, Hibakusha, Available [Online]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hibakusha, 25/11/2008.