Day 5 Pictures

As I mentioned in my last report it was an early start for the first of many train trips on Shinkansen and local trains that were to be our main mode of transport for the next week.
This first trip was Shinkansen to Okayama. We bought breakfast at the station bakery to eat on the train. This was also the first of many a meal on a train which is a good way to spend the time on the trains in Japan and many people do it.
The stations abound with sellers of baked goods and bento boxes for travellers to take on board. If you are really lucky you might even score a place that sells sandwiches!

At Okayama we visited the Korakuen Garden which is reported to be one of the top three gardens in Japan. It was a lovely day and we had over an hour to spend wandering the gardens and soaking up the sun. As this garden was a good bit south of Kyoto the blossoms were different as each of the 40 different types of cherry blossom flower at different times throughout the spring.

After the garden we headed back to the station for another Shinkansen to Hiroshima and of course a bento box lunch on board.

Train travel in Japan is surprisingly easy with most signs written in English and Japanese. Also because of the renowned punctuality of JR we were able to make some pretty tight connections with ease, including a 7 minute connection at one time.

At Hiroshima we caught a local tram to the Peace Park and Museum. The peace museum is a very moving place and has quite graphic images and descriptions of aftermath of the atomic bomb that fell there over 50 years ago. There are many artifacts from the area including watches stopped at 08:14 in the morning and a clump of glass bottles that all melted together into a block. There were also exhibits of clothing with burnt sections and various other articles like shoes. It made what happened that day very real and very disturbing.
As a formal protest to all nuclear armament the local government sends telegrams to the relevant governments whenever a nuclear test is conducted throughout the world. There is a section that displays copies of all these letters, of which there are far too many.

After the museum we visited the monument in the park that commemorates the fallen. One of the stories told in the museum was about a young girl who developed cancer as a result of the bomb and how she started to create a thousand paper cranes whilst in hospital. It was her belief that if she made the thousand cranes she would survive. She died before completing the task. As a monument this girl there is a gong and rooms that house paper cranes made by school children from all over Japan. Each school group makes the cranes and places them in these little shelters. It was a mass of colour with thousands of paper cranes hanging from strings.
After this we visited the very famous building that still survives after the bomb that is often seen when images of Hiroshima are shown on film clips.

Another tram ride took us away from this place but not the memories to yet another station and a local train to Miyajima-guchi and almost our final destination for the day. A short walk from the station and we were on a ferry heading to the island of Miyajima which is famous for the so called floating Torii gate.

The ferry was only 20 minutes or so and we were quickly on dry land again. We were given a brief orientation tour of the island and shown the restaurant we would meet up in later that evening for dinner. We then went to the first of two non-hotel stays on this trip at a local Japanese guest house.

After settling in we wandered down to the Torii gate to view the sun setting behind it. When we arrived the tide was out and we didn’t get the full ‘floating’ gate vista. There were a lot of people on the beach around the gate in search of cockles.

A little more strolling around town and we were ready to meet up for dinner. The restaurant to which the guide took us specialised in a local fare called Okonomiyaki which is a kind of pancake arrangement with cabbage and an assortment of meats in it and topped with a special sauce. It was quite a nice meal and was cooked right in front of us at a long griddle plate.

After dinner we headed back to the Torii gate to view it in all its illuminated glory. The tide had also come in by this time and we got to see the ‘floating’ gate as it was intended. The need for alcohol caught up with some of us and we found a local bar to have a nightcap before turning in.


Day 5 Pictures