Hiroshima

The group activity for today was visiting (yet another) Buddhist temple here in Kyoto, along with lessons from a monk on Zen meditation. I'm sure that it was beautiful, but we've done Zen instruction before. So we ditched the group today. This was not a spontaneous decision. We had the bullet train tickets days ago.

We made our way back to Kyoto railway station on the subway more quickly and easily than we'd planned. This is the first workday back after the holiday week, and we were ready for big crowds of commuters. We were surprised that the metro wasn't crowded at all. We were also surprised to see lots of school kids -- many as little as kindergarten or first grade -- who were moving through the station, obviously on their way to school, but completely without adults supervision. What independent kids!

Because we got to the station so early, we went to the ticket office and moved our tickets to an earlier train, getting into Hiroshima almost a half hour earlier than planned. We had little trouble finding the tram from the rail station to the Peace Park, but there were conflicting messages about at which stop to get off. We probably walked a bit more than necessary.

The Peace Park is beautiful. The dome monument -- the ruined shell of what used to be the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall -- dominates the space.

We walked through the park directly to the museum, where we bought tickets (very cheap) and audio guides (only a couple bucks apiece, but probably unnecessary as everything was in English anyway, and often the audio was just reading what was already on the display).

The museum was very crowded, but with few Japanese. Mostly Europeans and Americans. But aside from the Holocaust Memorial in Israel, we don't recall a museum as quiet as this. There was no talking. It was a very somber place, with emphasis on individual stories of the victims, both immediate and later due to radiation.

There was mention of the fact that Hiroshima was a major military base and an industrial center for war material, but the museum focused primarily on civilian victims.

After the museum, we crossed the Peace Park once again, this time in a more leisurely fashion. There were bus-loads of school groups on the grounds.

Mary had scoped out a restaurant for okonomiyaki -- a sort of Japanese pancake topped with cabbage, meat, and seafood that is a local specialty in Hiroshima. We found it quickly, but it was closed. No reason was given. Google Maps helped us locate two other okonomiyaki restaurants nearby, and both of them were also closed. We don't know if it was some sort of restaurant holiday or what.

We continued walking to the Hiroshima Castle, hoping to stumble upon a restaurant for lunch along the way. We had to settle for an ice cream cone from a stand on the castle grounds. But the "raw chocolate" cone was really quite good, even if very different from chocolate ice cream in the U.S.

The castle was built 1589-1591, but was leveled down to nothing but the stone foundations by the atomic bomb in 1945. The "faithful reproduction" was built in 1958 and the exhibits inside still have a very 1950s feel to them. It's overdue for renovation.

From there we walked toward the Shukkeien Garden. Built in 1620 as the grounds for a villa by a wealthy family, it was opened to the public in 1940. 

The atomic bomb attack destroyed most of the trees and other features. However, many survivors came here because there was water in the pond. So many died here that the garden became a cremation and burial site. Reopened in 1951, the garden now includes memorials to the dead. 

There are giant koi fish in the garden pond, and when a woman started feeding them there was a tremendous thrashing of fins and tails as dozens tried to get their fish pellets.

We continued walking from the garden on to the railway station. We were still looking for restaurants along the way, but found many close in the afternoons between lunch and dinner. It was now after 3 p.m.

But in the railway station food court, we finally found a place that was open and specialize in okonomiyaki! So we got our Hiroshima specialty meal after all. With the spicy sauces added, it was very good and quite filling.

Again, we were at the station earlier than our 6 p.m. train tickets, but we had no trouble exchanging them for a train an hour earlier. We made it back to our Kyoto hotel a bit weary from a long day of walking. But overall, our adventure in independent travel in Japan was a success.