Hiroshima

A beautiful sunny day and an early departure first to catch a local train and then the Shinkansen bullet train from Nagoya to Hiroshima, a trip of about 500km which took 2 hours.

On arrival we were meet by our new bus and driver for the day - a bright red smile bus. 

We began with an early buffet lunch at a local mall restaurant. Then drove to the Peace Memorial Park and Museum and the Atomic Bomb Dome. First we went upstairs for an overview of the city then outside to walk past the Dome, eternal flame, the Bell in memory of Sedaka who inspired the folding of 1000 cranes to be healed. Also the memorial shrine and finally the museum. The photographic images captured the horror of the bomb on the people of Hiroshima on 6th August 1945. The displays included a simulation of the dropping of the bomb on the city. Plus stories and artefacts representing some of the people who died. The hope of the survivors is to inspire the world never to drop another bomb. This was followed by a talk given by an 82 year old survivor of the bomb, which she experienced as a 4 year old.  She also gave each of us an origami paper crane that she had folded. 

The whole park is beautifully laid out and there were many cherry trees about 70 percent of full bloom.

Late afternoon we visited Shukkeien Garden where valleys, mountains and forests are represented in miniature along with ancient tea houses (restored after the bomb). Once again there were plenty of cherry blossoms a lot more varieties than we had seen previously including some multi coloured trees. 

The day ended with a dinner back near Hiroshima station. - this time shared plates. It was much slower than our previous dinners so we were late arriving at our Grand Prince Hotel located about 30 mins away from the centre on the waterfront around 8:00pm. With just our backpacks for the next couple of days. The G7 summit will be held here in May.