Miyajima and Hiroshima in One Day – You’ll Feel Conflicted, I Can Tell You – But It’s So Worthwhile!
We’re in Japan for two weeks and today we travel from Kyoto to Hiroshima. This is the third installment of my four-part two weeks in Japan. I hope you’ll watch them all, like them, and subscribe. [Music] If you’ve watched any of the series before, you know there’s a few things I love. I love the Japanese trains. I love the speed of the Japanese trains. And I love the view out the windows of the Japanese trains. So that means for me, spending a couple of hours on the train as we traveled from Kyoto to Hiroshima was no big deal. The train station here was like many others in that there was a mall attached to it and hotels attached to it. So, we dropped off our bags at our hotel a short walk away and returned to the mall. And although our hotel room wasn’t ready, we found a place to hang out. All right. Welcome to Cafe Moff. It’s our second cat cafe of the trip. The cats all looked healthy, alert, and energetic. Still, the mall setting was a little too noisy to be tranquil for cats. And while the layout was interesting from a design point of view, not sure how well it served the cats themselves. Nevertheless, there were cats. There were good people taking care of cats. And there were good people seeing the cats. And it did feature this really fun sort of honeycomb climbing area for the cats. Hey, hey, hey. No fighting. So, based on how well the cats themselves seem to be doing, I decided I had a good time here. But our time was up before our room was ready, so it was time to do some more exploring. These are the views from the rooftop of the station and the mall. Clearly, we were in a major shopping area. But it was also a near-perfect day and many people were just enjoying it. We’d better go see if our room is ready before I spend too much money. We had a really great room at the Sherin where we dropped our things off and I at least went back out. But really, all I did was go for a walk. It would be the next day we’d do our sightseeing. The next morning, we got an early start for our trip out to Majima Island. The trip on the local train seemed a whole lot slower than on the Shinkansson. [Music] We took the train to the ferry port for the short ride across to Mayajima Island. The walk to this station is short and the fairies are frequent. And as you’ll see, it’s not a terribly long ride, maybe 10 minutes. But in that ferry ride, you feel yourself transitioning from a very modern area to a very ancient area. It feels like you’re far away from the center of Hiroshima, but even this area suffered some bomb damage. Once ashore on the island, you’ll walk through the town where there’s actually a pretty good number of stores and restaurants. This is the Hokku shrine. Although it is now a Shinto shrine, sounds like it was built originally to be a Buddhist temple and somehow got converted over for purposes. In any event, it’s unpainted. I mentioned that because, as you’re about to see once again, most Shinto shrines are painted with the orange color. Once again, we’re at a UNESCO World Heritage site. And once again, the views are amazing. After an uncrowded look around there, we headed to what many would call the main event of the island. And there it is, the Mayajima floating tory. I really enjoyed getting the chance to see it, and I probably can’t explain why it it’s hard to articulate. And then next up was the Itsukushima Shrine. The floating Tori is actually the entrance to this shrine and a lot of the shrine extends out over the water. We were there at lower tide, so you didn’t quite get the same dramatic effect, but you can tell. And finally, its bridge was both spectacular and challenging. Now, another thing that Majima is known for is its deer. So, here are some. It’s similar to N in that regard. I’d mentioned before there were some nice shopping areas and sure enough we’re back in them and there is a famous maple leafshaped cookie associated with myima. Here they are making them. And we did get some cookies and the cookies were good, but we found the Majima brewery. This micro brew was also good. After a lunch, which did not include the Myajima oysters despite much encouragement to get them, we headed back to the ferry. Then it was back on the trains and back to downtown Hiroshima. The site I really wanted to see and which was really hard to see. Back in Hiroshima, we switched from the train to the street car. It was an efficient and comfortable way to travel, but we were traveling to arguably the most somber place in the entire world. This is Peace Park. It lies between the aiming point and ground zero of the first wartime use of a nuclear weapon. And you’re looking at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. view about this had been the perfeual industrial promotion hall. Although it was massively damaged, enough of it survived to create this eerie memorial. It was only a couple of hundred meters away from this bridge, which was the aiming point. And while the accuracy wasn’t perfect, it didn’t have to be. Knowing the history of this spot was really unsettling, but in a good and reflective way, if that makes sense. As we approached the Peace Memorial Museum, we came to the flame of peace. This flame will burn until all of the nuclear weapons in the world have been destroyed. And this is the Peace Memorial Museum. On the day I was there, it was absolutely jam-packed, very full, especially of younger students. And while it was full of important artifacts that told the story, it was this interactive map that made a huge impression on me. It really gives a sense of the diameter of the devastation. [Music] [Music] This was the view from the Peace Memorial Museum. museum looking back at where we had come from. As an American and as a student of Japanese history, this was a strange and conflicted experience. And of course, we can’t change the past, but we can all be aware of what happened in hopes of it shaping the future. We headed back to our hotel by taxi. This afforded us a good chance to see the vibrant city that Hiroshima now is. And finally, once back to our hotel, we were treated to this sunset. So, I have one more part to go, and I hope you’ll watch that. If you haven’t seen parts one and two, please go back and check those out. Oh, yeah, and subscribe, please.
Here in part 3 of my trip to Japan in May, 2025, you see our trip from Kyoto to Hiroshima and then our full day of sightseeing. Miyajima Island is beautiful and peaceful; the area around ground zero is somber and thought-provoking. But it’s a great day for contrasts and reflection.
AloJapan.com