There's a special kind of train ticket that's only sold 3 times a year during the school holidays: seishun 18 kippu 青春18切符 (Youth 18 Pass). It allows 5 non-consecutive and non-user-specific days of local train rides (in this sense, local means any type of train even express local trains, except Shinkansen/bullet train). So armed with this exciting pass, we (me and 2 other female friends) decided to make our way further further south to Hiroshima. By the fastest Shinkansen, it takes about 4.5 hours 1-way and 18,000yen; with local train rides, it took about 14-16 hours and 2,300yen. Thank goodness for the overnight train that runs during this special pass season, thus allowing us to use just 1 day of the pass each, instead of 2! 1 pass costs 11,500 yen so each day (5 days total) cost 2,300yen and the original journey cost about 10,000yen to 17,000yen - woohoo or what?!
So off to Hiroshima we went - and despite the tiredness of sleeping on trains and transferring on and off, there was a much more credible sense of travelling, of a journey undertaken. Many times, when I've sat in the window seat on the aeroplane looking out over the ocean and islands below, there's always been a surreal feeling. Especially when they start making the announcement "We have now arrived at XXX Airport. Thank you for flying with XXX Airlines. Please wait till the ...". Inevitably I think,"that's it?? we're here?!". Somehow there's no sense of a day passing, no feel of the geography, no idea of the cultures/people we might have flown by along the way. Now, passing by small fields of tea, and rice, cabbage, and chugging slowly by platforms that look different from the flashier city cousins, spying mountain ranges in the distance, and even passing by the sea glittering with sunlight - one could not help but feel, "yes, I'm travelling!" I'm traversing not just space, time and land; but cultures, people's lives, history and even the present." Yes, I'm travelling. I've never thought much about travelling in Europe before (except to visit Italy and Spain for food *slurp*), but now I'm starting to see the charm of taking a train across Europe.
Okay enough babbling and some pictures from the Hiroshima Trip:
1) On one of the trains to Hiroshima! Behold the fields of green and mountain ranges in the distance.
2) Himeji Castle - about midway on our journey to Hiroshima, so we stopped by to take a look. Especially since it will begin 5-year renovation work starting April 2010, so we were really lucky. Also known as the "White Heron" (due to its distinctive white walls) and is probably one of the few (or the only?) castle that has kept its interior intact. Very interesting castle - very defensive on the inside.
3) Lunch at Himeji - Anago Don. Unagi is freshwater eel, whilst Anago refers to saltwater eel or conger eel. Supposedly one of the local produce of the area. Both are equally tasty in my opinion, though anago is supposedly less fatty/oily than unagi.
4) Hiroshima-Okonomiyaki: Perhaps the most famous food dish in Hiroshima. Quite different from the Osaka version, in that it has just a thin layer of flour (the round white piece), usually includes noodles and more cabbage. This was served without mayonnaise too. We tried 2 shops: first was the very famous Mi-Chan and the other was Okonomiyaki-MuraChou (お好み焼き村長の店 = literally the Okonomiyaki Village Headchief's Shop). Funnily enough, I prefer the Hiroshima-okonomiyaki that's near my school in Tokyo instead! =P Like how I preferred the okonomiyaki I had in Tokyo compared to the one in Osaka! 0.0
5) Of course we took a walk around Peace Memorial Park - (clockwise from bottom left) Golden crane under the Children's Monument, walking the solemn path on a drizzly day, the Peace Bell, the Peace Monument, Aioi Bridge - the T-shaped bridge that apparently became the A-bomb's target, the Peace Memorial Museum from afar, and the A-bomb Dome.
6) And of course we entered the Peace Memorial Museum. 2 of the several things that struck me so much: (top) a clock stops at 8.15am; and the whole city has since stopped with it. (bottom) the self-sewn uniform of a 13-year-old girl that died from radioactive poisoning. what struck me was not so much her death in itself, but the tiny size of the uniform that looked more befitting of a 8-year-old perhaps. The costs of war...
But that aside, although the museum was so strongly geared towards peace and quite objective in its exhibits, I found that it was ultimately still a Japanese museum, and it served - albeit very subtly - to still further the Japanese story of WW2: Japan is an innocent victim and one that should be pitied and sympathised with for the very fact that the A-bomb was dropped upon her. Hrm, not denying this, but it'll be nice to have the whole story please.
7) Hiroshima's also known for oysters - we often saw oyster 'bed racks' floating about in the sea/river. So here's a meal with steamed oysters on rice. Not bad. Also tried grilled oysters in the shell in Miyajima, and Oyster Fry (deep fried oysters in batter).
8) Unlike most other cities in Japan where an extensive network of subway and train system exists, the tram/streetcar is the way to go for Hiroshima - largely due to the fact that Hiroshima is a delta, making it difficult and expensive to construct such a subway system.
9) Usually, every city/area in Japan has its own distinctive design for manhole covers. Hiroshima's is - surprise surprise - one of colourful cranes.
10) We also made the trip out to Kure City, to visit the Yamato Maritime Museum, which basically documented the importance of the Kure Naval Base to the WW2 and Hiroshima then. Interesting perspective. It also had an entire area for interactive play experience mainly for kids, but we 3 had a smashing time there. And I learnt alot about the science that makes shipbuilding possible. Neat.
11) Having made our way to Hiroshima, we could not possibly miss out the day trip to one of the top 3 scenic spots in Japan - Miyajima. Famous for its beautiful scenery and the Itsukushima Shrine with the bright orange torii (or Japanese Shinto Shrine Gate) out in the water. It was a welcome change away from all the peace and war. (And look mum! I'm wearing the giraffe dress! =) ) Miyajima by day was pretty but slightly crowded; Miyajima by dusk/night was
breath-taking and awe-inspiring...
12) Besides tourism, another major industry in Hiroshima is none other than Mazda!
We took a (free -yippee!) guided tour around Mazda's factories, facilities and museum. Learnt more about car-making and got to see the assembly of cars in real life! The engineers are really quite amazing. Whilst alot of the big parts were assembled with precision robotics, highly-skilled workers were still necessary to put in the small screws, bolts, attach the dashboard etc etc. Each person only had 1min 48 seconds to finish doing his specific part on the conveyor belt!
13) Also chanced upon this special exhibition in Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art. William Kentridge is a South African, and his works - especially his animated 'videos' - reflect that. Really thought-provoking exhibition. The permanent exhibition was not bad as well - focusing on the theme of "Boundary" yet somehow the curator (unsurprisingly?) managed to incorporate the idea of 8.15am once more...
14) A good trip on the whole - and I do quite like Hiroshima. Oddly enough, what I find sad about the city is not the whole 8.15am A-bomb milestone event; but the fact that everywhere, everything was about that ONE fateful day in 1945, August 6 at 8.15am. As a history student, I certainly appreciated coming to Hiroshima - if not just to learn how subtle biasness can be so skilfully delivered. But on the whole, I really did like Hiroshima. Not for any of this war and peace business, but for the spacious wide thoroughfares that criss cross the city; and the graceful bridges that arch above the water ways; the quiet buzz of her people - completely opposite to the 'loud' mass of Tokyo.
How sad that she can't seem to move past her past though. For today's Hiroshima is almost as if characterised only by that one mushroom cloud that dominated her past, haunts her present and will probably shape her future.
