• Upset in Hiroshima
• Tue. Mar, 8 2005

A few hours after having gone to bed, I hardly awoke to reach the きょうと京都 central station in order to get my しんかんせん新幹線
heading to ひろしま広島 for a day tour there. Rendez-vous was also set with Ayako and her schoolmate "Chii". After the traditional nap in the train (helped by a small べんとう弁当, an other tradition), I arrived at ひろしま広島 and reached the fountain where I was supposed to meet Ayako.
Fortunately, she was waiting for me there, as tired as me. Once Chii had finished her cigarette, and the traditional introductions done, she was ready to be our guide for the day in ひろしま広島 and then, not too far from there, みやじま宮島 and its floating とりい大鳥居 as one of the highlights of the day.
At first, we decided to take the tramway to head to the dome and his surrounds to see with our own eyes this testimony of a dark period of Japan (which tends to keep on creating problems in the region, especially Korea or China). Walking among all this monuments and remains brought some strange feeling in my mind. A kind of undescribable one: you are torn between present, past, beauty of the area and all thess kinds visiting the place certainly without understanding what they are staring at. A very strange promenade that preceded the Peace Museum.
After a first part of the visit summing up the historical background of summer 1945, you go through a long condamnation of nuke weapons and wars. USA, Russia, UK, France and more recently India and Pakistan are among the unfortunate guest stars. If we can stand a bit sceptical on such a demonstration, the last part definitely achieves to upset you: a collection of objects, pictures, texts... shows this unstandable experience lived by the victims of the drop on August the 6th and even months or years after...
Once we were done, we found back Chii having a nap on a bench under the perfect sun of that day. It was time to take the train (where all of us slept) and then the ferry to reach Miyajima (where we could also have a lunch since our stomachs became a bit loudy). We arrived in みやじま宮島 and started the tour by a good おこのみやきお好み焼き restaurant. We enjoyed the ひろしま広島-style おこのみやきお好み焼き and then, we went through the city, buying some specialities, before arriving at the temple. Despite some remains from the last storm which hits the island, we enjoyed the sight and all the deers did as well. Unfortunately, we start running out of time since I have to come back to きょうと京都 for the last evening with Makoto, Kaori and two of Makoto's colleagues.
Happily, despite I have to shorten the good-bye at ひろしま広島, I didn't miss my train and arrived -almost- on time at "home" for the marvellous なべ鍋 that Makoto and Kaori have prepared.