After the Hiroshima Peace Memorial we discussed where to go next, go for Fuji, check out Miyajima or something else? We had stamps on our Seishun 18 card in abundance so we decided we should check how often the transports left for Miyajima from Hiroshima stations. The next stop was in a few minutes, no need to hesitate and off we went.

It was pretty crowded on the train and when we got to the ferry port there were people everywhere. A quick check at some tourist information showed us that each year the 14th of August there is a grand display of fireworks and this was a very popular event for locals as well as tourists. Again, lady Fortune rewarded her brave disciples.

There were groups of young japanese students on holidays, young pairs wearing kimonos all over the place as well as families with children. The island wasn’t big in any sense, I would estimate the amount of people somewhere above 100 000 and the area a little smaller than Roskilde including camping. It felt like being at a huge concert. We grabbed some food and went looking for a view that was considered to be one of the three best in Japan. We got there after some struggling in the crowds and got a really good spot.

Then the fireworks begun. I tried to capture some of with my camera but I guess the pictures doesn’t justify the reality. It was really nice and beatiful, a nice change from the feelings from Hiroshima.The fireworks just kept coming and after almost an hour we thought we go back to the ferry port.

There was some beach located nearby and I just couldn’t let this chance of swimming naked in Japan slip through my fingers. Said and done. We found a secluded area and I jumped into the water. It was nice although I guess we didn’t found the actual beach but rather some piece of sand since it was a bit dirty. I of course cut my foot on some rocks on the way up, not bad though.

The trip back to Hiroshima took a little longer since now the fireworks had actually ended and all those people just had to leave at the same time. Back at Hiroshima station we decided that the splurge yesterday at the hotel called for a sleep outside the station homeless-style again in order to correct or budget as well as avoid getting soft 😉

We luckily removed our luggage from the coin lockers just before 24 to change some clothing. When we went back in order to put the stuff back we couldn’t get in, which meant we had to sleep with our stuff unprotected. On the other hand, the situation that finding out 15 minutes before the train at 05:53 towards Fuji leaves that we can’t get our luggage seemed even less desirable so we considered it to be a good thing that we had our luggage at hand.I slept like a baby but Ulf couldn’t quite let it go with the homeless and yakuza-wannabes scouting our sleeping spot now and then. Some conversation took place where it seemed some local homeless guy explained that we could sleep in the same place as the rest of the gang but Ulf kindly declined.

I woke up by some puppy that tried to lick me. Ulf had to stop me from transforming the creature to a bloody pulp since I was more sleeping than awake and tried to defend me from this beast. When the sleep was leaving and I stood up ready to defend myself I realized that the beast wasn’t that big and according to Ulf quite cute, for a dog. Still I simply don’t get what’s the problem with dog owners who let their dogs walk around without a leach.

We are currently on the local trains again heading towards Fuji. We will see what we do there, perhaps a good sleep before climbing old Fuji would be nice. But then again, we could sleep on Mount Fuji instead. I guess we will see, we have done 3 of the 8 transfers now and it’s not much more than 9 hours left of the 12 hours we started with…

After a good night’s sleep we took the local bus to our planned visit for the day. The Peace Memorial Park and it’s museum. The museum of course describes in detail all to well the horrors that were consequences of the terrible dropping of the world’s first A-bomb, 08.15 the 6th August 1945 by the bomber Enola gay. I am not the most sensitive guy but I have a hard time writing this afterwards (it’s actually tuesday morning and I’m on a train while I’m writing this) because of the frustration, sadness and sheer sense of sorrow I’m feeling.

The museum and everything around this does not focus only in self-pity but is actively trying to prevent development (and of course use) of such weapons of mass destruction. According to Wikipedia the information about Japan’s actions prior to the bombing where put there after some complaints from other countries. You can say in rather light terms that Japan was no saint either, e.g. quite a few chinese citizens were killed when Japan captured Nanjing.

What is perhaps the most disturbing thing about all these events are the reason for why the bomb was dropped at Hiroshima at that dreadful day. I thought US perhaps had the decency not to drop it on Tokyo since the amount of civilians as well as Hiroshima being sort of a military training ground and headquarters for Japan. I was wrong, Tokyo was indeed suggested but the damage would be greater in Hiroshima and effects could more easily be observed there. The reason for not bombing Germany was that they might be possible to salvage the bomb and use it in their own research.

That was for the choice of where to drop the bomb. The choice of dropping it was that it would put an end to the war and therefore being able to stand up against criticism of it’s huge development cost. The fact that Soviet would end the war was known but US didn’t want Soviet to gain that much influence after the war. Better to write the play so that US make the deathblow. It makes me sick that see these documents between leaders of the world at that time describing how to best make use of their investments and how to avoid (extremely well deserved) public criticism.

Ulf and me didn’t joke as much we usually do and I guess we both were contemplating the problems with this world. Since we are both reading the same book now, End of Faith, by Sam Harris the problems with religious beliefs combined with todays weapons (H-bombs are about 3000 more ‘effective’ than the bomb dropped over Hiroshima) we discussed a few pointers from the book. In addition to the current events in Israel and Lebanon the future don’t look that bright. There was was also a quite depressing clock that showed two meters, one for days after Hiroshima and one for days after the last nuclear weapon test. The latter number was 171 days.

The were also official letters of protest sent from succeeding mayors of Hiroshima to each government responsible for such a test. There were way to many of those letters in the museum to be found. Sometimes I doubt that mankind deserves to survive but I guess we always need to struggle for peace.

When arriving at Hiroshima around 22 we thought that this was going to be a rough night. We hadn’t exactly made any reservations or done a thorough research on Hiroshima accommodations. But luck belongs to the brave, we met three girls at the information desk and one of the girls offered to show us to a ‘very cheap hotel’ which they were going to. Sounded like a nice thing, we were impressed by her english skills that was basic, i.e. well above average.

This proved to be due to the cause that Luna as she was called originated from China and was a chinese teacher living in Tokyo for the last six years. She called and made reservations for us, I got the impression that a room for two was 4400 yen. Almost the double as yesterday but could be nice to avoid strolling around with luggage in the Hiroshima night. When we got to the, in our experiences, quite flashy hotel the two rooms for 4400 each were reserved. Well well, the rooms were really nice and you had your own bathroom. Cool, almost like home, except smaller.

After a quick shower Ulf and I hit the streets to what Hiroshima had to offer this sunday night. The quick answer to that question was not much at all. We actually found the city quite dead and shops as well as restaurants had closed. After some searching we found a place where the chefs prepared your food more or less like a pizza (replace ingredients with japanese ones) on a hot table. This we read afterwards was something typical for Hiroshima called okonomiyaki and it was really nice. We then back to our hotel to enjoy electricity, internet and a soft bed.