Weekend in Hiroshima

Well...before we even got to Hiroshima we were excited! A little ways into the flight we looked out the window and BLAM! FUJI-SAN!!! This photo turned out surprizingly well considering we had to take it through thick plane windows.



No trip to Hiroshima would be complete without a visit to the A-Bomb Dome. Seeing this 'building' first hand really makes you feel a little uneasy. The dome itself was about 200m from the blasts hypocenter, which occurred 580m above the ground. Considering everything within a 1km radius (and many things at greater distances) of the blast instantly burst into flames, its a wonder this building is standing.



This structure is a cenotaph (A monument erected in honor of a dead person whose remains lie elsewhere. Often used for soldiers.) for the victims of the A-Bomb. It is near the entrance to the memorial museum in the peace park.



In the memorial museum they show this replica of Hiroshima before the bomb was dropped.



Nearly all the buildings within 1.5 - 2km from the hypocenter were destroyed completely. Of the total 90,000 buildings in Hiroshima, 60,000 of them were destroyed by the blast.



This larger picture gives you a better indication of the magnitude of the blast. The red sphere represents the growing nuclear fireball just after the explosion began.



I took this photo of the city from the 15th floor of our hotel where we were having breakfast. Imagine where the museum would be in the previous picture then compare the sizes of both pictures. Scary hey. The foreground of this picture only represents about 1/20 of the destroyed area in the picture above.



Well, enough depressing stuff! Gotta love the hotel Yukatas! After this photo....it wasn't long before we hit the sack.....ready for our second and final day in hiroshima!



On day 2 we headed out to Miyajima Island which is about 50mins by train then ferry from Hiroshima station. Deer just roam everywhere on this island. Krys thought she'd pat one....but its started nibbling her leg so we moved on.



The 'Torii' behind us is very famous in Japan as it marks the entrance to the 'floating' Itsukushima Shrine on Miyajima.



As the tide was out the floating shrine was far less impressive. As such, we didnt actually go into the shine itself. At high tide the water usually rises about a meter and the shrine looks way better.



We decided to take a stroll to a park and then check out a walking track up the mountain. Now this walking track turned out to be a little longer than we first expected and before long we had gone too far to turn back so we kept on trekking and eventually made it to the top of Mt Misen! At 530m Mt Misen is the highest mountain on Miyajima and took us a good 2 hours to climb. The view was worth it! We were knackered and had no time so we took a cable car back down the mountain.



Last but not least.....the monkeys. Apparently there are evil monkeys high atop Mt Misen. As this sign proves! Monkeys with attitude! "Are you lookin' at me?!" *CHOMP*