Started this morning by realizing I look disgusting. Lynda had a shower and I started to pack when I caught a glimpse of my head in an adjacent mirror. My work colleagues will tell you I’m clearly not a man who spends a lot of time in front of a mirror, so it only compounded the horror I witnessed. The hair from my nose and ears had joined the beard and were obviously enjoying themselves, whilst random black hairs were exposing themselves in normally desolate regions. To make matters worse, I’d had Vegemite on toast and much of it had stayed under my nose forming what can only be described as a yellow tinge that only a career smoker could possess. Something needed to be done, if only for Lynda’s sake.
We took off on the bullet train again and had to get off in Osaka which is a marathon away, 42.8kms to be exact. Guess how long? 13 minutes! Incredible and again everything in precision time. Then got the train to Hiroshima which was 331km in 90 mins! Did you know the Shinkansen commenced in 1964! We can’t even decide to build a train line from Melbourne to Tullamarine! One thing’s for sure, my hatred of politicians in Australia grows with every trip when I think of all the junkets they have been on overseas examining benchmark practice in urban planning and sustainable living and the best they can do is make Packenham and Werribee bigger.
Following the Air BnB host’s instructions, we hopped on a tram to get to our apartment. We were noticing just how much Hiroshima is like our beloved Melbourne when the first drops of rain appeared! Hadn’t seen any since we got here so as Melbournians it’s was a nice feeling. We pulled into a local coffee shop and I think the lovely ladies in there were a bit overwhelmed seeing this big hairy beast crashing in. They couldn’t speak a word of English so one of them ran out panicking to find a younger employee who spoke some. We had a good ol’ laugh, had some sandwiches and went to the apartment.
The apartment is on the 4th floor of an old building tucked away on an old side street. It’s spotless and has a more traditional setup. Tatami mats and 2 queen size futons so Lynda can spread out and avoid my snoring. Outside our door is literally a rooftop which is nice and as usual, there is everything you need within a short walk. We just returned from another astonishing feed at a teppanyaki restaurant around the corner. Tiny and cute, definitely teppanyaki without the theatrics. Just quality food dish after dish. We were joined by a gentleman called Rio, a local pharmacist who wanted to have a chat. The owner was on her own and was a machine with the tools! Such a nice lady.
As we like to do when arriving at a new spot we dumped the bags and went for a walk. First stop before it got dark, and the main reason people come here, the Peace Park. Once again we are treated to magnificent gardens and parkland and I am struggling not to photograph the fauna with my newly found love of trees and stuff.
The first memorial is simple and is an upside down U shape and it covers a tomb which contains the names of everyone they know that died the day the bomb dropped. If you look through the centre of the memorial you can see the eternal flame and in the distance the incredible Atomic Bomb Dome where the bomb impacted 160m above and about 200m to the side.
Below is what is written at the memorial. Everything is so simple and clear with the Japanese. The message is clear to the millions who visit here every year…it happened, we accept it, we don’t necessarily like it when over 100,000 of our civilians are incinerated and much more than that die of excruciating illness in the years following, however, let this be the last time nuclear weapons are ever used on the earth. They genuinely don’t want to see anyone from any nation go through what they did ever again. So much grace, humility and forgiveness.
Both my parents were in the thick of it during WW2. Dad, a commando in the British Army came to Perth a widower after the war, as a 10-pound Pom. He saw unthinkable horror in his years fighting whilst Mum was trying to raise 4 kids on her own whilst her husband was fighting in New Guinea. She left him after the war, met Dad, then myself and Glen popped out. I remember doing a school project in Primary School on Japan and asking them both about their attitude to what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. As much as they both felt sorry for the Japanese, they were both relieved after it happened because they knew the war was over. That was the general feeling at the time, that everyone had had a gutful and something as big as the bomb was justified.
The above picture shows looking back from behind the eternal flame to the memorial and behind that is the famous museum we will visit tomorrow. The 9/11 memorial was quite moving but it was so stunning to look at that it didn’t hit as hard. I’m tipping this visit will be grim and to the point.
The next memorial on a slightly happier note is the Children’s Memorial. You can read the inscription here:
Again it’s not over the top, extremely understated and beautiful. The paper cranes are amazing!
Then it was off to see the Bomb Dome. You can read what happened below. Nothing more to say really.
That was then and this is now:
Another part of the park that was built in the 60’s was the clock tower. This rings the sound of a bell at 8.15am every morning across the city to commemorate the time the bomb was dropped.
Finally the Bell of Peace which everyone can ring.
So that’s the Peace Park so far. Hiroshima itself today is a thriving city with clean beautiful rivers and very modern big city. A little more western that Kyoto and Tokyo even, but even less English speaking. The people here are renowned for their generosity and we had a taste of that this evening.
I mentioned at the start how disgusting I looked. Well, I needed to clean up big time. When we were in Boston on our last holiday I had the full haircut and shave thing so we managed to find a place in a backstreet and the gentleman and his wife were amazing. I have had the best shave, haircut and even shampoo (with conditioner and a treatment!) for $40! Not a facial hair was missed and if any think they were, they were so scared they won’t appear for a couple of weeks anyway! On top of that, I got shoulder and head massage followed by a massage on my back with a huge orbital sander! Meanwhile, Lynda waited for an hour in a massage chair! Cracking experience and as they do in Japan they won’t accept tips so sadly I couldn’t give him extra.
Off to bed. Hope all’s well back home. Cheers Willow & Lynda
