Last stop in the trip was in Kobe. It was improvised the last morning. So, we changed our tickets to be able to stop in Kobe, and we spent a couple of hours in this city, famous for another sad event. A big earthquake in 1999. 6000 people died, and half of the city was destroyed, but now it’s almost impossible to see what it was destroyed.
Here, we just took a sightseeing bus to see the city, but we spent most of the time in a restaurant enjoying the famous Kobe beef.
Incredibly good. No further comments.
After Hiroshima, we also went to Mijayima, which is an island very close to Hiroshima, which combines temples and nature.
It has the famous torii, which sometimes is in the water…
… and others in the mud.
The island was considered sacred, and normal people couldn’t go to the temple walking, but only on boat. Therefore, they had to go through this gate in the water, so they didn’t step outside the temple.
Apart from that, this island has a very nice mountain with lots of nature that you can either climb, or take a ropeway.
Guess what we chose, in such a hot and warm day…
Now, I can say I have climbed more mountains in Japan than in Spain. ^_^
Monday was a bank holiday in Japan. It was the Respect for the Elderly day (yes, Japan has such a day, isn’t it nice?).
Therefore, I decided to go to Hiroshima, which is in the western side of Japan. We only needed 4 hours to cover a distance of 800 km in the Shinkansen. We went to a couple of places more apart from Hiroshima, but our base was Hiroshima.
The first impression when you arrive to Hiroshima is that it’s just another big japanese city… and that’s impressive. I don’t remember anything that has impacted me more than the Peace Memorial Museum. I can only compare this to the visit to Bergen Belsen during my Erasmus.
As you probably know, the first atomic bomb used with military purposes was dropped in Hiroshima in the First World War. It destroyed the whole city, killed half of the population and the rest were injured.
The Peace Memorial Museum is built very close to the place the A-Bomb exploded, in a memorial park, and has everything related to the A-Bomb. From the way the war started, the life before the war and the bomb, how the decision of using the atomic bomb was done (one of the reasons was just to justify the investment), why they chose Hiroshima, and of course the consequences.
And are countries still considering using nuclear weapons again?
Update: A comment about this last picture I forgot to write at the beginning. That’s a paper crane. It became a symbol of hope, after Sadako, a girl with leukemia after the A-Bomb, started doing 1000 of them. There is a japanese saying that states that the person who does 1000 paper cranes, will have one wish become true. Sadako didn’t manage to finish the task, but her friends did it for her. From that moment all over Japan, paper cranes are done and sent to Hiroshima.
For me, a garden is something similar to this (ok, it can be less beautiful), with flowers, trees, etc… Green stuff.
But, there are also rocks and sand gardens, deeply influenced by the zen culture. It’s true that after a while you start seeing relationships, and giving a meaning to the configuration of the garden… But I still don’t get it completely…
Amazing. This time we only had time for some walking around, and visiting a couple of sights (temples mainly), but I promise a second visit to Kyoto.
In Kyoto, you can see this beautiful temple, called the Golden Pavillion…
…relax and reflect looking for the meaning of life in zen gardens …
…have a nice walk in the wealth company under thousands of toriis…
…get together with the nature in the temples’ gardens…
…or just contemplate the politeness of two geishas in the street.
Yes, Kyoto deserves more than one post…