Hiroshima

We headed back to Kyoto station after a full Japanese breakfast at the hotel. As we were a bit early for the train I took the opportunity to book some seats on our future journeys on the shinkansen, As it was reasonably busy I was only able to book three more journeys which left me only one to complete all of our planned trips on the train within our 7 day ticket limit. Once booked we boarded the train for Hiroshima. We were sure that this was not going to be an easy day but from speaking to people who had been before they had all said it was very worthwhile.

We arrived at Hiroshima station and waited in the queue for the bus to the Atomic Dome and the Memorial Park and Museum.

The whole memorial area is incredibly moving to visit. As you walk around and read all of the information it builds a very vivid picture of what happened on that day and in the aftermath. The park itself is quite tranquil and peaceful but the museum is very overwhelming with its continuous record of stories, events and artefacts, but again hugely informative and thought provoking. We were glad we had seen it all but I’m not sure enjoyed is the correct word.

After the experience of the memorial area we headed to the Shukkeien Gardens which is a large Japanese garden with water features, bridges and pavilions and our first real site of cherry blossom trees approaching full bloom. It was a tremendous and very welcome contrast to the morning’s visit and we spent a very peaceful afternoon in the gardens.

We headed back to the station, then on to Kyoto, dinner and bed.