So I noticed, if it’s any season other than Winter in Japan, it seems like one can’t escape the heat. Even when you think it’s not so bad, before you know it you’re breaking a sweat. Or was that because of the not-so-recommended distances I walked today?
Let me start from the beginning. I woke up pretty much on schedule, checked out of my hotel in Osaka and made a mad dash to the station to catch a train to JR Osaka. So after finding my way to the very familiar Midori no Madoguchi inside JR Osaka, I got my JR Pass without any hitch. I must say, it felt good to have my very own pass, instead of pretending to be someone else and using theirs (a hilarious story for another day, if you haven’t heard it already).
By the way, at least 5 minutes after leaving the house, my hairstyle melted into a gloopy mess. It really was warmer than it looked from inside. The humidity, whilst not overwhelming, creeps up on you before you know it. But anyway…
So I turned up at Shin-Osaka, with 20 minutes until the shinkansen I wanted to take departed. I went to the reservations window, only to be told that there were no reserved seats left on that train. The guy was nice though – he reserved me a seat on the next train, but told me to try and get into the unreserved carriages instead on the train I originally wanted to take. There was a long line formed outside each of the unreserved carriages; with commuters just waiting for the cleaners to be done so they could board the train. The carriages were at full capacity in the end, but I did manage to get on. Lucky me.
One and a half hours later (on the dot, unlike Sydney’s ridiculous train system), I arrived in Hiroshima and hopped off the train. The first thing I did was find a big coin locker, which set me back 600 yen. D’oh! In retrospect, even though check in time at my hotel was 4pm, I probably should have tried to bring my luggage first and see if they were willing to hold it for me (I get the feeling they wouldn’t though, as the lobby is minimal and the hotel building itself is very compact… I suppose one gets what they pay for.)
Having been alleviated of my heavy luggage, I headed back towards one of the maps and tried to figure out where I wanted to go first. After walking one way, then realising that there was no pedestrian crossing, then doing the same for the opposite direction, it occurred to me that all crossings were underground. Duh, Rick. So I headed downstairs and found a big underground plaza with a large, circular market-looking thing in the middle. Around the circle were pathways going in all directions, all with signage for tourist attractions. Fairly easy to navigate. I decided to go to Shukkeien, then walk to all my other destinations from there.
Even though I wasn’t sure about whether I wanted to go to Shukkeien in the first place, I was glad I did by the end. It’s basically a (comparatively) small Japanese garden, with lots of unique bridges and interesting monuments scattered throughout. There were also lots of park benches. I had bought an iced coffee earlier, so I was glad I still had it as it was hot, so I would chill on the benches and take photos here and there. There were couples doing wedding photography in the traditional Japanese robes, I wanted to take photos of them because they looked amazing, but didn’t want to intrude (too shy? hehe)
After getting lost in the bamboo forest (not literally) and checking out every possible trail in the park, I quickly consulted Google Maps and decided to go to the Genbaku Dome (A-Bomb Dome) next, before hitting up the Hiroshima Peace Park. Just to confirm the directions Google Maps had given me, I asked a nearby Koban officer if I was heading in the right direction. He strongly recommended I take some form of public transport, but I mean, I haven’t been here in 6 years or something. I told him I’d rather walk, despite it being a 30-minute walk.
30 minutes later (after getting lost and distracted numerous times), I found myself in front of Genbaku Dome. The atmosphere around the dome was not as… subdued as I remembered it to be the last time I was there. There were many tourists floating around, I spotted a group of young schoolgirls from South Australia which I became aware of by their accents. I took photos of Genbaku Dome, and while I was doing so I noticed two things – one, the dome is exactly the way it was after it was hit by the bomb. In fact, the council constantly refurbish the ruins to ensure they are exactly the same as they were on that fateful day. Alarm systems are in place to deter anyone tampering with the setup. Also, two, there were entire chunks of brick wall scattered in what looked like a courtyard, but I imagine was actually the inside of the building before some of the outer walls were shattered. I didn’t tear up like I did years ago when visiting this site, but I did find myself deeply wondering about the whole situation, and how people here would address it to future generations.
I spent the greater part of two hours from this point, just walking around the whole Peace Park. This time, unfortunately, I did not go into the museums – I had seen it before and had photos already. I just wandered aimlessly around the park, reading each of the plaques and checking out the different monuments. I got approached by a group of young Japanese school-kids practising their English on me. Tres cute. Their teacher scurried over afterwards, and apologized/thanked me for humoring them (ironically enough, she didn’t try speaking English with me at all).
The thing that surprised me the most is that everyone seems really friendly towards foreigners here. I mean, it’s not like I expected anything else, but I just wondered if perhaps the events of WWII still affected the mindsets of the local Japanese population. I know that in Korea, there seems to still be a certain air of resentment. Understandable, though I don’t want to get into that on this blog. Moving on…
After the Peace Park, I walked towards where I figured Hiroshima Castle would be, but found myself at Hondori instead. I had done a bit of light reading on these places, but never realised that they would be so close together/easy to find like this. I figure I might go back there later this evening, if it’s not as humid. It’s basically a large shotengai (shopping arcade street thing), akin to Shinsaibashi/Namba area. I need to get some more appropriate pants for the weather; pantswise I only brought two kinds of skinny jeans – and I honestly don’t know what I was thinking, seeing as I had an idea of the weather before I got here.
After tearing myself away from Hondori, I got to Hiroshima Castle and paid the entrance fee. Walked through all 5 levels of exhibitions, read everything, but didn’t take a whole lot in. Perhaps I was tired already by this point? Perhaps I subconsciously didn’t want the history lesson. There was a section where you could try on traditional Japanese dress for men and women, and get photos of yourself in the clothing – except since I was alone, I felt like it would be embarrassing. There’s no one there to assist you or anything, they just have clothing on hangers that you can put over your own clothing. When I say photos, I mean you can take your own. Hence, embarrassing because I was alone. Perhaps one day in the future I’ll do something like this.
Anyway, I found myself at the very top floor, where you could venture out onto a deck and look at the views of Hiroshima city. Whilst not anything special (Hiroshima is no Osaka or Tokyo, I suppose), it was really cool up there and the sights were definitely worth the 360 yen entry fee. But as I’ve said about Osaka Castle and other castles that are refurbished with museums inside them, this is the kind of thing I only need to do once.
After Hiroshima Castle, I worked my way back towards Hondori, and when I spotted the Saizeriya there, I figured “why not?” It’s funny, really. This time, I have enough money to live on comfortably here, but I still find myself going to the same places. I ordered a Spaghetti Pepperoncino with “Han-juku Tamago” (soft boiled egg? on top) and… MELON SODA, which I’m really fond of. And whilst eating/smoking inside the chain restaurant, I truly felt like I was in Japan again.
The rest of the day is nondescript, just went back to my hotel at around 6:30pm, checked in, got out of my sticky clothes. It’s around 8pm now; I’m just processing some of today’s photos in Lightroom. I’ll probably head out for dinner soon, also I need to get some washing machine powder to wash my clothes with. When I decided to pack super light this time, I didn’t take into account the two showers a day, two changes of clothing that I would go through. Looks like UNIQLO is going to become my friend this time too.
If you made it this far, congratulations! & thanks for reading, of course 🙂