Back on the bullet (BotB) to Hiroshima, but making a pit stop in a place called Himeji that has one of Japan’s grandest castles. Making a pit stop is usually a PITA traveling with luggage but in Japan of course they have a great setup of large coin lockers at all the stations so it’s easy to throw the big backpack into the locker, grab the key and go.
The first walk out of the train station is pretty pretty great. You exit onto the main street that leads directly to castle, which is sitting up on a hill, overlooking the city. It feels like it’s staring you right in the face even though it’s more than a kilometer away. The castle makes an excellent backdrop for photos as well, it’s such a cool centerpiece. Japan does such a great job of blending the old and the new. Although the ‘old’ usually isn’t actually very old, considering so much of the country was destroyed by the US air raids in WW2, but they’ve done an impeccable job with restoring cultural and traditional sites. And to the US’s credit, they gave lots of money and few restrictions for the urban renewal after the war, and didn’t have the Soviets to compete with for influence, economic or ideological.
dark clouds gathering
I paid my 600 yen to go inside and have a look around the famed Himeji Castle, aka white heron castle. It went from sunny to snowing while I was there, which felt fitting. This one was built in 1333 by some military dude, I can’t remember all this history. But castles in Japan are actually pretty boring inside! When the castles were in use they were mostly a storehouse for weapons and ammunition and the top floors were used for strategy meetings, but nobody lived inside them and they weren’t really decorated or anything. You could climb the stairs up to the 6thfloor for the view, but there’s about 100% chance you get stuck behind someone old or injured going at about 1 stair per minute.
Walking around the city was nice as well, they have a walking street that’s all lit up for Christmas. And of course I couldn’t stop taking photos with the castle as the backdrop! Then as I was getting into the train station the sun came out just before it set, illuminating the castle in that striking red hue and nothing else. Perfect finish for the day! Then I was BotB and in Hiroshima in an hour. Time flies on the train.
In Hiroshima there wasn’t anything going on at the hostel, real shocker there, so I walked around town a bit and got some ramen, always a winner. It was entertaining watching the electric railway cars go around town, some are modern, but a bunch are cool retro looking ones. I really enjoyed taking photos of them! Apparently trains, including taking photographs of them, is a very common hobby in Japan. And I get it!
The next morning it was an early start. I actually hopped in the electric railway car, but it wasn’t like the buses, and I couldn’t figure out how to pay or buy a ticket! So I hopped off the next stop and walked to the Peace Park. I had the time and the weather was great. Upon arriving the first thing you see is the brown brick Atomic Bomb Dome, in stark contrast with the sleek modern glass plated buildingto s next to it. The dome is one of the few structures that remained standing after the A-bomb was dropped, I guess because the building was almost directly underneath the bomb detonation so it didn’t get hit as much by the horizontal blast forces that radiated outward. It’s pretty wild to see, and think about.
You cross the bridge and there’s the Peace Park that has an eternal flame blazing, in the name of world peace, not surprisingly. It was very quiet when I was there, just a few people milling around. This is also the site of the Atomic Bomb Museum, which gives a good account of the daily life of people in Hiroshima in the 40’s, the immediate aftermath of the bomb, the stories of the survivors, horrifying photos, and the longer term struggles the locals faced dealing with all the loss of life and family members, radiation sickness, and rebuilding. It sounds like many people made what looked like recoveries and then soon their hair started falling out and they were dead not long after. And then of course of the people that did survive the short term, many died of cancer down the road. A very sobering but worthwhile visit.
After this I had some time to wander around, grab something to eat, take a look at the Hiroshima Castle, and eventually catch the train to Miyijama, which is where you go to catch the 10 minute ferry over to Miyajima Island, the site of the famous Torii shrine that sits just off the beach, the base submerged at high tide.
There’s also a bit of hiking on the island, but I really didn’t have enough time for it if I wanted to see anything else around. Oh well, I’d walked enough this trip – averaging 9.5 miles a day! First order of business was the grilled oyster stand. The island is famous for it’s oysters, and they’re big ones! I’m no oyster aficionado, but they were pretty tasty. I then checked out the shrine at low tide, hung out with the deer, stopped in a temple. It’s all pretty touristy. Then it was on a cable car to the top of the island, the views were fantastic!
The next day it was raining, so I had a chance to go out with my umbrella and long lens and take some shots of the electric railway cars in the drizzle. Loving the drizzles!
