Miyajima and Hiroshima in a Day

Okay we have a confession to make. After two full days in Japan, we are beginning to see ourselves a little bit like the young boy in the current Expedia ads on television. Notebook and pen in hand - Golden Pavilion (tick), Silver Pavilion (tick), Kiyomizudera (tick), Red Tori gate at Miyajima (tick), A-Bomb Dome and Peace Museum Hiroshima (tick).....

Tomorrow may be less about the what to see and more about the journey as we head into the mountains for a visit to Takayama. You may have noted that this moved in our itinerary from next Saturday as there were no seats to be booked on the train that day with Japan on the move for the long weekend.

Early start this morning with the 7.20am Shinkansen Hikari to Hiroshima

View from Shinkansen

and then a quick transfer to a local train to head on to Miyajimaguchi. Off the train and down to the wharf and pretty well straight on to a JR ferry across to Miyajima island, 

JR Miyajima Ferry Terminal

 all due to the great forward planning of our excellent guide, who came at great cost! (PP) The tide was heading to a high tide so the red tori gate was surrounded by water and also kayakers paddling through it!

When Jessica and Philip visited Miyajima, Philip had part of the map that he was reading eaten by one of the local "wild" deer as he sat minding his own business. On this trip Alison was keen to see the deer and was looking around for them when she realised that one was lying asleep in a garden camouflaged by the dirt just near where she was standing! 

We also saw some more deer down on the ledge that runs along the water side of the sea wall and Alison was concerned about how they might not get back to dry land as all the sea gates in the wall were closed. Maybe this is a way to thin the deer population!

We enjoyed a local deep fried cake delicacy in the same establishment that Jessica and Philip had visited in 2008. One custard cream flavoured and the other cheese. Both were "derricious"!

Derricious fried treats!

Conger eel buns - now we didn't try that delicacy!

This restaurant must be good of serves very fresh deer!

Back across the water and on to the local train and into Hiroshima station. Caught a street car straight away and headed to the A-Dome and Peace Park. Students from Jessica's school had made us a collection of paper cranes to hang at the Sadako memorial which we dutifully did. 

 

Then it was in to the Peace Museum and the moving journey through the story of what happened before, during and after that tragic day on August 6, 1945.

Walking to Peace Museum with group of school kids.

View from eternal flame to A Dome

Photo in museum of after effects of the bomb

A-Dome

Alison offered a very interesting observation on her reaction. We have visited Dachau Concentration Camp and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington and Alison said that she had been more emotionally moved by these two visits than Hiroshima. We discussed the matter and agreed that compared to the bombing of Hiroshima the other two places portrayed more in the way of direct inhumanity being inflicted in a personal sense by individual humans against other individuals. This in no way takes away from the horror that the people of Hiroshima and later Nagasaki experienced.

After our time in the Peace Park, we headed back to arrange for a Shinkansen ride "home" to Kyoto. We were unable to get reserved seats on the next Shinkansen (Sakura) so lined up at the beginning of the queue at the entry point for one of the non-reserved cars and managed to score two seats together on the three seat side of the car. The Sakura terminates at Shin-Osaka so there was a nine minute window for us to find the correct platform for our next reserved ride on the Shinkansen Kodama. Just did it - no JR staff in sight when you really need them!

As we were back in Kyoto reasonably early, we decided to investigate a shopping mall near our hotel that Neil and Kay Sivyer (our trusted Japanese tour informants) had told us about and that we spied as our train came into the station. (Aeon Shopping Mall) We discovered a great supermarket on the ground floor and were able to purchase ready prepared food including warm beef croquettes (thank heavens for friendly Japanese shoppers with a smattering of English to interpret labels and a bold wife!), sushi for breakfast on the train tomorrow morning (a break from the delicious savoury pastries that we ate on the train this morning) and a large bottle of Pepsi Next for a treat in our room after a hard day. With a Y5 plastic shopping bag thrown in the bill came to Y1255. We are really trying to travel on the cheap to save our Japanese currency. What is better, Philip discovered after the transaction that they accept AMEX or Visa Cards for purchase so we will know that for next time. We have also noticed that the Japanese have taken up another western celebration - Halloween. At the supermarket today you could even buy Orange and Grape Fanta in little pumpkin shaped bottles!

We then came outside and, being adventurous, took a different route back to the Hotel. This was a nice change from the hustle of the main streets and gave us a chance to look a different aspect of Kyoto. In fact there is a back street which leads from Aeon Mall to our hotel.