Day 52-53 Taste of Peace in Hiroshima

Jul 4 • Blog, Honshu • 979 Views • 4 Comments

 
View Larger Map (A: Shrine in Miyajima / B: Hiroshima City)

After staying in the beautiful Iwakuni, my host, Nate, came along my bike ride for a few days as it was the start of “Golden Week,” spring holiday time in Japan. After a couple hours of bike ride, we took a 10 minute boat ride to Miyajima Island off of Hiroshima, where the famous Itsukushima Shrine was. This Itsukushima shrine, first build in 593, is well known for its beauty in standing in the sea, and it is a UNESCO’s World Cultural Heritage Site. This is one of the “Three Views of Japan” (the canonical list of Japan’s three most celebrated scenic sights), and welcomes visitors from around the world.

I so wanted to go kayaking around here.

On this day when we visited, the tide was very low and the ground was showing. Most of the time, where you see the sand is filled with water and you cannot walk around.

Though I wanted to see the shrine on the water, I took advantage of being able to see under the shrine. Most every piece of wood had a writing of where that piece should have been placed, and also the name and address of someone who donated money to the shrine.

Hiroshima is known for oysters! Nothing could have been better than cycling to see the famous beautiful shrine and having grilled oysters by the sea with a friend.

Miyajima Island is known for shamoji, wooden rice scoop. There was a GIANT shamoji on display. You could scoop a few people with that one.

Momiji manju is Hiroshima’s famous sweets. The sponge cake is shaped like a Japanese maple leaf, and inside is sweet red beans. Nowadays there are chocolate, custard, and some other flavors too.

This isn’t Hiroshima specific, but I want to share this with you since I came across a stand. It’s called Chikuwa. Ground fish meat is shaped like a tube on the metal bar and grilled until golden. We slice them and they look like rings in various dishes, or you can have it as is.

It’s dinner time in Hiroshima! Hiroshima has their own style of Okonomiyaki. It’s a savory pancake with lots of cabbage and some meat, but the ones in Hiroshima has yakisoba (egg noodles) in it. If you think of a layer of crape, an egg, cabbage, sliced pork,  egg noodles together with special sauce on top, that is Hiroshima’s Okonomiyaki.

The grill in front keeps the food warm. Mmmmm…!

The next day was a visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Park. This is the Atomic Bomb Dome (Genbaku Dome), preserved from the bombing of 1945. When you see this building up close, you can feel the power of the nuclear explosion even now. This is one of the few buildings that were standing after the bombing in the city of Hiroshima, and is also designated a World Cultural Heritage Site.

The Peace Memorial Museum is a must see to understand and appreciate the peace we have today. The red ball in the air is where the bomb exploded, and you can see that most everything was wiped out in a flash.

It’s scary to see how many nuclear warheads exist in the world today. It’s not just when they are used in the war, but also the experimental explosions around the world cause massive damage to our beautiful nature, animals, and also humans living near the sites. This museum leaves all visitors with the wish for the world without nuclear warheads, or for that matter, with no war.

There were many origami paper cranes brought from all over Japan at the park, all with the wish for world peace.

I am lucky to be living here at this time, when we have plenty of food and can cycle around with no fear of being bombed from above. My grandparents’ generation lived through the war, and two of them lived in Nagasaki back then. They were luckily out of town when the bomb was dropped in the city, and that is why I exist here today.

No violence brings happiness at the end. It’s only love (& food with love) that can.

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