Japan 2019

Tuesday12November

After leaving Onomichi an hour earlier, we arrive in Hiroshima. We all have in mind the sad event that scarred the city in 1945. We will explore these places later, but for now, we begin with a visit to Hiroshima-Jo, the city's castle.

On the left, the city's radio-TV tower. On the right, the Rihga Royal Hotel.

The entrance to the castle grounds passes in front of the statue of Ikeda Hayato, Prime Minister of Japan in the 1960s and a native of the region.

The enclosure is surrounded by water-filled moats.

Beyond the maple tree tops, the castle's high-perched top floor reveals itself...

The castle now houses a museum.

From the castle windows, we enjoy a beautiful view of the park with its autumnal colors, the moats, and some of the city's buildings.

At the foot of the castle, young newlyweds pose in front of photographers with the beautiful edifice in the background.

At the very top, it is possible to go out onto the narrow balcony that surrounds the top floor.

We've come back down, and the newlyweds are just finishing their photos with the castle.

Traditional wedding costumes (most often Shinto) are just as important as the newlyweds themselves. The bride, especially, must follow a well-defined ritual and adorn herself with clothing throughout the day... But we will see much more in Tokyo!  

The photo session isn't over, it continues in the park and I join the official photographers...  

A little further on, another couple also poses for photos that will surely end up framed and hung on the wall of the master bedroom or on the living room dresser.  

The family is just as well dressed as the newlyweds.

In the Gokoku Jinja shrine (also located within the castle grounds), children dressed in their finest kimonos are surely returning from a Shinto ceremony.

We leave the castle park to reach the Shukkei En garden. An opportunity to see two generations of trams...

Here we are in the Shukkei En garden, which came into being in the 17th century.

In the middle of the pond, a Florida turtle (Trachemys scripta) basks in the sun.

The garden only became public in 1940. Before that date, it was the property of the Asano family, descendants of the Samurai of the same name.

Koi carp! These famous large ornamental fish are a variety of the common carp (Cyprinus carpio carpio).

"The price of some rare and very aesthetic specimens could reach 200 thousand dollars in the early 2000s. A sale made in 2018 reached a record amount of 1.8 million dollars. The most prized koi carp is the tancho. This carp is white with a unique red spot on the top of its head, particularly appreciated by the Japanese due to the motif resembling the country's flag."

"This fish is known for its docility. With gentleness and a little patience, koi carp will come to feed from your hand and allow themselves to be easily touched." "This fish is known for its docility. With gentleness and a little patience, koi carp will come to feed from your hand and allow themselves to be easily touched."
© Wikipedia

A small "rainbow" bridge crosses the pond.

We now move on to the historic site that made the name Hiroshima known to the entire world, on that sad day in 1945 when the first atomic bomb was used. This bomb, on August 6th at exactly 8:16 AM, instantly killed 75 thousand people.

The city, completely razed within a 2-kilometer radius, quickly rebuilt after the war. One of the rare buildings to have resisted the blast of the explosion was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall, now called "The A-Bomb Dome," genkabu meaning atomic bomb in Japanese.

Of the dome, only the metal structure remains.

The bomb exploded 130 meters from the dome and 600 meters above ground level. The primary target was the Aioi Bridge from where I am taking this photo, but the wind shifted the bomb by 200 meters.

The Ōta River

The dome was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1996.

Next to the bridge, a bust of the writer Miekichi Suzuki is installed next to two children. Born in Hiroshima, he published the children's magazine "Akai tori" (red bird) between 1918 and 1936.

"I will cherish my dream for eternity just like a young boy, so I worry less.". Quote from the poet engraved on the stele.

Next to it, a remnant of the old Aioi Bridge which was rebuilt twice after the bomb.

The destroyed but standing building was left as is.

The building is made of red bricks originally covered with cement.

A grey heron (Ardea cinerea) has taken its place in the sky-blue frame of a window...

The heron is still there, contemplating incredulously the remnant of humanity's dire hours...

This monument pays tribute to the 6,300 students who died in the bombing. They had been mobilized to work in the munitions factory.

Garlands of origami cranes. This arrangement perpetuates the "legend of a thousand cranes" or Senbazuru. "This legend inspired the story of Sadako Sasaki, a survivor of the atomic bombings, designated by the term hibakusha. This Japanese girl, suffering from leukemia as a result of the Hiroshima atomic bomb explosion, undertook to make, at the urging of her best friend Chizuko, a thousand origami cranes to fulfill her wish for healing. Unfortunately, she died before she could complete her task, having made only 644 cranes. Her classmates finished what she had started, and her story made the paper crane a symbol of peace." © Wikipedia

The A-Bomb Dome from the right bank of the Ōta River.

A photo of the building before its destruction.

On the island facing the Dome, a park is entirely dedicated not to the events but simply to Peace, in a spirit of appeasement and clemency among people.

The Peace Bell (a bonsho)

The yellow leaves of a ginkgo biloba. This tree is a very strong symbol of the city, as it was the only one to survive the bomb explosion.  

Again, origami in memory of Sadako Sasaki's thousand cranes.

The cenotaph for Korean victims. Korea was annexed by Japan at the time. Many Koreans were working in the city during the tragedy.

This monument is dedicated to the children who died from the bomb, especially Sadako Sasaki, represented at the top of the dome with a large crane behind her.

The monument was built with funds collected by Japanese schoolchildren, including those from the girl's class.

The park continues towards a less wooded area, reserved for the museum and the eternal Flame of Peace. The flame, the arch-shaped cenotaph, and the museum are perfectly aligned with the A-Bomb Dome.

The flame and 50 meters in front of it, the arch-shaped cenotaph.

The flame and 230 meters behind it, the A-Bomb Dome.

Under the arch is written in Japanese "安らかに眠って下さい 過ちは 繰返しませぬから": "Rest in peace, do not repeat the error".

We will spend the next two hours in the museum, which very instructively recounts the events and their consequences for the city and its inhabitants, including objects charred or deformed by the bomb, and testimonies from survivors.

One of the museum rooms recounts the hours and days following the explosion, notably with photos of the injured gathered in makeshift hospitals.

It's night when we leave the museum. Behind the building, the "Prayer Fountain", also positioned in alignment with the other monuments up to the Dome. This fountain symbolizes the last words of some bomb victims: "water, please, water"...  

We retrace our steps from the day to return to our hotel.

For dinner, we're looking for yakitori... And bang, we stumble upon a tiny restaurant called "Yakitoris 108"! But no luck, no one speaks English except the boss's phone, which activates the translator option, and he finds it hilarious to see these two French people sitting at his bar!  

Cabbage leaves as an appetizer.

The yakitori "turner" prepares the skewers (chicken skin?) for the next day.

As for us, we're content with simple meat and shrimp skewers...

There was another kind of skewer with these sake bottles right in front of us...   Sake is rice alcohol, and here are 7 varieties...

The boss intends to make us taste one of these sakes, and we obviously accept. Except he fills the glass! Usually, we drink sake in a tiny glass!   But Japanese sake is not like Chinese sake. Indeed, while the latter can reach 70 degrees, Japanese sake is obtained by fermentation (not distillation, which produces strong alcohol) and only reaches 17 degrees... Phew, this glass will finally be easy to drink... Thanks, boss!  

We will spend the night in the Guesthouse Com Inn. Its name is a bit misleading, there is no manager, entry is by code.

Tomorrow, we'll move a bit away from Hiroshima to hike on Miyajima Island.