hiroshima.
a new roomie, bradley, was planning on heading to hiroshima as well, so we thought we’d all go together, michelle had another random guy who wanted to join us as well, the more the merrier i guess…
anyways. we were supposed to leave at 930, bradley went to go get some breakfast cause he was ready around 9ish, and michelle was…. slow :P. i think. probably. or maybe it was me? anyways, her friend richard was done and ready at 9, and we sorta dawdled around until around 10ish waiting for bradley to get back! iuno if any else minded much, but richard was pretty pissy about it, so we left and headed to the station and onto hiroshima.
although we felt bad, it makes sense, we dont really know the guy and he was pretty late, so we just left without him. meh. on track to hiroshima, the shinkansen from kyoto doesnt go there so we gotta go down one stop to shin-osaka THEN get on again to hiroshima, aiya.
the previous night, after dinner in pontocho area, my lower left calf started hurting a lot as i walked. it was like a pinching feeling, as if it was building up in order to burst. it would hurt a lot with long walks, which we had that night…
anyways, this was relevant because we were going to walk to the hiroshima site, but a streetcar would be faster, and easier on my leg. finding the damn thing was weird cause we didnt look at the map closely enough. it was so logical, but we missed it by looking at signs on the wall instead of the pamphlet. meh, we eventually found it and arrived at the a-bomb dome where the building has been reconstructed to the state it was at right after the bomb hit as a memory of the tragedy as well as a symbol for world peace afterwards. the building was very, intense. to the side of this dome, there was a small monument with paper cranes and a small pagoda with statues of birds which was dedicated to children. i think.
after spending some time at the dome, we headed towards the park where the eternal flame for peace was burning and the cenotaph which symbolized the grave site for all who lost their lives because of the bomb. they were all lined up beautifully with the japanese flag waving in the background.
there was a memorial building that provided testimonials, names, and some other information about the tragedy. the main room was a circular path that was very quiet and peaceful providing some facts about the bombing and continued down into a middle circular room that depicted how hiroshima looked right after the bombing. there were hundreds of thousands of tiles used to create this panoramic illustration, each to represent a life lost. in the centre of the room, a small and solemn water fountain gently flowed, offering water to all of the people who suffered without water during the time.
outside of this room was a digital presentation of the names and pictures of people who were identified among the dead, many young and old. going up, there was a temporary exhibition about the intense thirst that victims suffered, testimonials from survivors about the suffering going on around them and how they were unable to help. it was very…. deep and saddening. michelle’s going to be haunted by ‘mizu’ for a while…
after leaving, and losing michelle and richard for a while, we headed into the museum which elaborated on the actual bomb, the facts, american decisions, japanese laws, emergency situations, diseases, aftereffects, atomic bombs in general, and a lot more. i think the most important piece shown in the first part of the museum was the numerous and unending number of petitions sent by the mayor of hiroshima to other countries rumored to have begun any nuclear testing. the latest on the wall was from 2006, and it looked as if the way couldn’t hold any more and would need to be expanded soon.
this then led into testimonials from victims and survivors and their families. it got extremely graphic and just incredibly depressing. parents identified their children through lunch boxes, sandals, clothes, because they were unable to any other way. remnants of their children were donated to the museum. a father buried his son with his favorite tricycle and helmet, and moved him 40 years later to their family grave site… there were also several diseases and aftereffects from the bomb, different for some. most memorable was a man losing the top part of his fingers from the blast and a black nail-like material grew from the fingers, only the material had blood vessels and were round and thick, whenever it would fall off, blood would gush out and the black ‘nails’ would grow once again. there was also a small section devoted to sadoko, who was famous for folding more than a thousand paper cranes to show how much she wanted to live. anyone would have to just sit for a while after going through that museum.
after resting a little bit, we decided to head over to miyajima. although we knew most of the stuff would be closed, we would have no other chance to head there. richard, who didnt turn out to be so bad, decided to head back to the hostel.
when we finally reached miyajima, after a subway ride and a 15 minute ferry, we only had about 15 minutes to wander before the next boat would leave, and we needed to catch that in order to get back to the hostel by shinkansen.
leon walked ahead, towards the torii gates. there were some deer there, but there were signs that they were not tame, and to watch your babies carefully. michelle stayed around the ferry area and got into her own world with her photography. as soon as leon and i reached the beach closest to the gates, and snapped some shots, we had to head back immediately. run run run, for like 20 seconds. walk fast! lol… but we didnt know where michelle was… as soon as we got into the station, the ferry was gone, and michelle was coming out from the dock cause we weren’t on the boat 😛 and we had to wait another 30 minutes for the next ferry… 🙁
there happened to be another ferry, not covered by the JR pass, which we took instead, which was 15 minutes later instead of 30, and gave us a higher chance of catching the required shinkansen trains. we got off the ferry, reached the train station, and then…… got a bit lost trying to get to the other side of the platforms… and missed the train. oops. my fault. while waiting we went through our options and it was still possible to pay an extra…. 1300¥ or somethin to ride the nozomi line from shin-osaka to kyoto (15 minutes), but we decided to ask when we got to the hiroshima JR station.
unfortunately, they couldnt speak english – -;… and somehow i managed to make use of the japanese i learnt and figured out that it would only cost 840¥ through nozomi OR take the JR subway for free, but almost 4 times longer. of course we opted for the free option 😛 and we eventually found our way back to the hostel. whee. train times are evil. 🙁
the a-bomb dome
small paper cranes folded by sadoko
while walking back, i almost tripped while crossing the street… and for some reason by leg felt a bit better o.o… whoa.
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