Arriving in Hiroshima, we were struck by its beauty and hospitality.
Departing Tokyo
We had an afternoon reservation for the Shinkansen bound for Hiroshima. This was planned on purpose so we had time to navigate through Tokyo station. Oh boy, that was a great idea yet we almost didn’t have enough time. The trouble was that every guide says to scan your QR Code Shinkansen tickets at the carousels. Seemed simple enough, except we couldn’t find any such carousel that could scan our tickets.
Turns out that we were on one of the sides of Tokyo station which is for JR passes only and had to move very quickly to the other side of the station. Then, Chantal’s ticket didn’t scan properly and whilst it allowed Chantal through the gate, it didn’t print the seating information which was essential for proving your ticket.
We both panicked and rushed through the station to get to the train as we only had five minutes left. When we got to the train, we only just made it. We spent the majority of the four hours on the train worrying about Chantal’s seating information printout and whether we would be charged again for the seat.
Fortunately, on arrival the station masters quickly fixed up Chantal’s ticket without any fuss. This made us immediately like Hiroshima.
The afternoon spent in this beautiful city was used making the most of the gorgeous sunset over the bomb dome, opposite our hotel. The hotel – Hiroshima no Yado Aioi – is a traditional inn. We were greeted with kindness and the staff took our bags up to the room. They explained the protocols and gave us a gift!
After sunset, we set out to find Okonomiyaki – a traditional teppanyaki dish comprising of a savoury pancake, egg, vegetables and sauce. In Hiroshima, the local style Okonomiyaki seemed to be with pork (think streaky bacon rashers) and cabbage, topped with spring onions.
A Humanitarian Tragedy and Dedication to Peace
Our first full day was dedicated to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, surrounding areas, and exploring.
Completed in 1955, 10 years after the 6 August 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, the Peace Memorial Museum is dedicated to the stories of those lost and impacted by the bombing and to send a message of peace to the world.
Things we learned from this experience:
- Children comprised many of the bomb victims. This is because children were recruited to assist with demolishing wooden houses throughout the city, as fire breakers.
- Prior to the bombing, Hiroshima had a proud military history and its economy prospered during Japanese wars (such as the first and second Sino-Japanese war, Russo-Japanese war, and the Boxer Rebellion).
- 70 countries have signed the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, but Australia has yet to join them. Interestingly (but not surprising), no countries with nuclear weapons have signed.
Okonomimura
On brand for us is to spend several hours in museums trying to soak up as much knowledge as possible. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was no different and it was soon lunch time.
By now the Peace Park was filled with people enjoying the pleasant spring day and shade of the cherry blossoms. We decided that we wanted to compare our Okonomiyaki experience from the previous night and selected the Okonomimura.
The Okonomimura is a multi-level building full of Okonomiyaki vendors, all highly rated. It’s situated near the Hondori street shopping precinct and quickly became one of our favourite places.
After a delicious lunch that refuelled us in mind and body, we embarked on further exploring Hiroshima and headed towards the castle. Along the way we saw a cat cafe (Cat Cafe Moff) and there was some kind of food festival happening. Once we got to the castle we admired the gardens and found some ice cream. After this, we walked back to the shopping district to admire the underground shops and multi-level department store.
Once we had walked around enough to get hungry again, we set out to find something to eat. We found a place called Niiya which specialises in yakitori (meat on a stick). The menu was completely in Japanese with no pictures and there were no Westerners to be seen – an excellent sign. We managed to order some Sake and various meats, most of which were delicious.
Itsukushima (Shrine Island)
For our third and final full day in Hiroshima we travelled out to Miyajima/Itsukushima, an island not too far from Hiroshima city.
A quick note about the island’s name: formally known as Itsukushima, the island is known colloquially as Miyajima (shrine island) to the extent that the ferry is called the Miyajima ferry.
After getting a quick coffee, we took the train to the ferry terminal before taking the ~15min ferry to the island. We’ll say this over and over again: the IC cards are a godsend and save so much time from buying tickets. The ticket lines were long and chaotic but we walked right through with our SUICA card.
When we arrived at the island we spotted some deer and took a few photos before wondering around. The deer were so cute and very friendly! Everyone was heading straight for the famous torii gate but we decided to venture around first. Mainly to avoid the hoards of tourists descending upon the island.
We walked through the main streets full of food and souvenir stalls before stopping at one for a quick snack. We didn’t get a photo at the time but here’s one of Chris holding another one he later purchased. The stall vendor taught us the Japanese word for delicious – “Oishī”. When we went back to grab our second helping, he remembered us and made sure we had a fresh, warm “Miyajima croissant”.
We continued on and visited a few shrines before taking the less-populated trails across beautiful gardens and streams. It was truly beautiful seeing the cherry blossoms blowing across the paths in the wind. While this wasn’t a very long hike, it was one of the most beautiful and peaceful places to walk around. Very few of the tourists ventured this way, and we were grateful for the serenity.
After a couple of hours of walking we made our way back to the main streets and eat some more of the delicious food and find ice cream.
The ice cream experience on Miyajima is fantastic – the soft serve is perfectly shaped and oishi! (delicious).
We were pretty tired by this point and made our way back to the hotel to rest before heading back out for dinner at Okonomimura again. We sat next to an incredibly friendly couple from Manchester and shared our experiences across Japan.
Tomorrow we take the Shinkansen to Osaka. Let’s hope it’s a smoother ride (see what we did there?) navigating through the ticket gates this time around.
Chris and Chantal 