Hiroshima continued: Miyajima

Miyajima temple and torii gate.

After our visit to the Peace Museum we jumped back on the street car and headed towards Miyajima harbor to catch a ferry to the island of Miyajima, just 30 minutes outside of Hiroshima. Another perk of the rail pass is that it covers rides on Japan Rail's Miyajima ferry as well. When we arrived at the dock a ferry was preparing to leave. The attendant barely glanced at our passes and instead yelled at us to run. So we ran onto the ferry as the very last passengers before it pushed off.

Miyajima is most famous for its floating temple and torii gate. Neither is literally floating, but they appear to float at high tide since they are built on stilts. At low tide when the water recedes you can walk right out to the gate. We were lucky enough to arrive as the tide was going out and were able to see both before we left.

Floating torii gate at high tide.

The other main features of Miyajima are its natural beauty (rated by a medieval Japanese scholar as one of the most beautiful spots in Japan), its deer and its food (fresh conger eel, oysters and maple leaf bread).

After visiting the torii gate and taking some pictures we went in search of lunch. On the island there is one main market near the dock with a host of restaurants and souvenir shops. A few people do live on the island (we walked through several tiny neighborhood streets), but for the most part this area seemed geared at tourists. No problem there though as it was charming. We settled on a family run eel restaurant where we got an udon/grilled eel set. I wasn't a huge fan of the eel myself, but my friend said it was very good.

Steamed eel buns "Always makes you smile!"

This restaurant had a fan.

After lunch we explored the island. Every view was beautiful and I wish we had had time for a real hike there, but instead we wandered, enjoying the scenery and visiting a temple here and there. It helped that the weather remained a striking combination of bright sunlight threatened by storm clouds in the distance.

We also took time to play with the deer which were everywhere. The more famous place to see deer in Japan is Nara, the difference being Nara has an actual deer park where you can feed the deer and it is more accessible from Kyoto and Tokyo. On Miyajima the deer roam across the whole island and are not supposed to be fed. There are numerous signs warning tourists not to feed the deer in myriad languages, but it's clear they were largely ignored. We caught one deer persistently loitering outside a restaurant and another boldly nosing in tourists' pockets.

After walking back from the temple we spent a little more time eating our way through the market. My favorite would have to be the fresh grilled oysters cooked in their shells with cheese — delicious! I was scared to try them at first, but my friend insisted and I'm glad she did. We also bought a set of the different maple breads made on the island. Unfortunately they weren't maple flavored breads, but maple leaf shaped breads with a variety of fillings — red bean, chocolate, custard, espresso.

For our final excursion we returned to the torii gate now at low tide. The stream of people walking out to its pillars looked almost like a pilgrimage, all of them so small in the ocean's emptied basin.

Catching a late afternoon ferry back to Hiroshima, we just had time to stop by Hiroshima Castle before continuing back to the hostel, exhausted and full.

Hiroshima Castle

Hiroshima

Atom Bomb Dome (Peace Dome), Hiroshima

We arrived in Hiroshima the in the evening, having said goodbye to the rabbits on Okunoshima earlier that day. I immediately liked the feel of the city which was a little old fashioned and slow. The train station was smaller than Osaka or Kyoto and full of elementary students in sailor uniforms. The students matched all the way down to their socks and up to their floppy hats.

Hiroshima is one of the few places in Japan that still has a street car system rather than a subway. Following the directions to our hostel, we got on one of the Hiroden line cars (1, 2, 6). We were taking the Hiroden line to Hacchoubori, where we needed to transfer to the Hakushima line. One quirk of the Hiroshima trolley system was the presence of uniformed conductors walking up and down the aisles asking people if they needed change. In order to transfer we paid for the ride on the Hiroden line and told the driver "To Hakushima, please," so he would give us a transfer card. The Hakushima line was very small, so we sat by the driver and watched him direct the trolley via a large switchboard.

Our hostel in Hiroshima, Guesthouse Roku, was wonderful — one of my favorite places we stayed. The guesthouse was in a traditional Japanese house and when we arrived the staff were chatting in the screened porch which doubled as dining room and bar. They were all very friendly and invited us to come down and have a drink after we got settled in.

View from my bunk at Guesthouse Roku. It was such a gorgeous old-style house and very comfortable too.

Narrow hallways at Guesthouse Roku.

That night we went out to taste Hiroshima's famous food — Okonomiyaki! For those of you who don't know, Okonomiyaki is a large layered pancake grilled in front of you on a giant steel slab. The basic ingredients are batter, shredded cabbage and green onions and from there anything goes. Common variations include seafood like squid or shrimp, other grilled meat, cheese, rice cake, vegetables or all the preceding. Delicious!

We only planned one full day in Hiroshima, so the next day we left early to see the Hiroshima Peace Museum soon after it opened at 9am. They day was alternately bright and drizzling as we walked through the Peace Park. The Atomic Bomb Dome was undergoing renovation when we visited, but was still impressive. Next to the Dome are photographs showing Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped and just days after. In the second picture, the dome is easily located as a single building in a field of rubble.

Anyone visiting Hiroshima and anyone interested in peace or war should visit the monument and the museum there. Using photos, artifacts, recreations and interviews the museum tells the story of that one day and its aftermath. The tone is never accusatory or angry, but documents the horrific results of the atomic bomb. Walking through the exhibits I felt that no distopian wasteland could be more terrible than the personal accounts I was reading. I learned that although the bomb did a lot of damage when it detonated equally terrible were the fires created from the reverse wind of the bomb.

We left the museum sobered, but also impressed by our interactions with the staff and volunteers who really seem committed to promoting peace around the world.