Hiroshima

This was a day-trip we did while in Kurashiki.

It was an early morning to get ready at seven thirty to leave for Miyajima.
Miyajima is an island near Hiroshima known as the holy island. Near the island is a tori standing in the water, which is accessible by foot when the tide is low.

On the island the deer roamed free and were sometimes quite aggressive if you had any food.
e took the cable-car up the mountain for a taking a look on top of Mt Misen.

The view was magnificent. Also up here, there were deer, and also some monkeys running freely around.
We were warning not to look the monkeys in the eyes, to avoid any incidents.

Back downstairs, it was time to have lunch. The specialty was oysters, but since we are not big fans of there, we passed.

At 2 o’clock, we took the boat back, and got onto the bus again to go to Hiroshima.

Here, the first thing we did, was visit the bomb museum. This museum is a bit larger than Nagasaki’s. Especially reading and seeing the personal testimonies of survivors leave quite an impression. Visiting this museum makes you realize a lot that we cannot let anything like this happen ever again.

Outside the museum, we walked around Peace Park, where the A-bomb dome stands. This is one of the few remaining buildings still standing after the bomb.
There were also the Gates of Peace. This is a series of 10 gates where the word peace is inscribed in 49 languages. This monument is established in 2005.

For dinner, there were reservations in an okonomiyaki restaurant. Okonomiyaki is made from a kind of dough (pancake shaped) where vegetables, meat, fish, egg, sauce, etc are added, depending on you personal likes. Also this dinner was really good.

Around 8 o’clock in the evening it was time to go back to Kurashiki, where we arrived around 10.

Currently we are experiencing heavy rain, but are hopes are up that this is all cleared up by tomorrow.

Let us hope that we didn’t make the gods with us on the holy islands.