Early in the morning Tatjana and I set off to Miyajima island and Itsukushima shrine. Again we travelled on the Shinkanzen to Miyajimaguchi!
All the pine trees are sculptured, I imagine it’s a full time job, they have to take out the growing tips!
The a ferry to the Island, and our first sight of the Torii Gate partially submerged. There are Torii Gates to Shinto Shrines and as you go through them you enter the sacred or spiritual world, it’s a very Japanese thing!
Itsukushima Shrine is a UNESCO world heritage site and the site is over a 1000 years old. The shrine itself is build over the sand of a shallow bay. So at times the shrine at high tide looks as though it is floating and the Torii can be walked to at low tide. It is popular with tourists.
It’s also popular with Sika deer which were wandering about completely unconcerned by humans. They are sacred in Shinto religion.
We wandered around the shrine which is quite spare and lacking in ornamentation apart from a couple of lions and lanterns. I did see a few things I felt were a little ironic. For instance Sake barrels, gifted to the shrine but very clearly advertising! Of course there are the blessings and prayers to buy and I might have bought a few!!!
The island is wooded and you can go to the top of the mountain by cable car but, we didn’t have time before our ferry and so after lunch we strolled around a beautiful woodland landscape. Tatjana said, nothing here will be natural and she’s right the Japanese are famous for their nature imitating landscape vignettes!
Before we caught the ferry again we stopped for ice-cream and suddenly found ourselves very attractive.
We took a ferry directly to Hiroshima. Yes, yes, I know I said I wouldn’t do war stuff again after my trip to Berlin but, I don’t think could come to Japan and not do it!
The ferry brought us past the eerie and iconic Hiroshima Peace Memorial (Genbaku Dome). This building was one of very few buildings left standing after the atomic bomb was dropped 06/08/1945.
We had arranged to meet Tamae our day host in the park. After introductions she took us to a cellar, in ground zero where the Hiroshima Prefecture (district) Fuel Rationing Union once stood and the one man out of the 37 working there, Eizo Nomura. He survived as he went to look for documents in the building’s cellar when the bomb dropped.
Approximately 80,000 people died instantly then thousands more from burns and radiation. The bombing of this town and Nagasaki were instrumental in Japan’s decision to surrender in WW2
I’ll let you look up the devastation of that bomb for yourselves. The area affected is staggering.
Tamae then took us to Hiroshima Castle which was largely destroyed by the bomb has been reconstructed. As we approached it and looked at our maps it became clear that a number of trees survived the blast (near the epicenter) and are alive today! This astounded me! Gingko, pines and camphor trees along with a few others. Most horribly burned but, continued to grow and fruit afterwards. The seeds of the Japanese pine have been gifted to various countries as a symbol of peace.
The castle is interesting too and we climbed to the top looking at the various exhibits inside.
After our visit, Tatjana and I parted for a day or so while she visited her family and I went to get up to mischief all on my own in Himeji!
The Travelling Bee 