Hiroshima

We arrived in Hiroshima on Monday afternoon after a lovely journey on the Shinkansen (bullet train.) The journey in miles was similar to traveling from London to Avignon which on Eurostar takes around 5-6 hours, on the bullet train, Tokyo to Hiroshima took just under 4 hours.

Our hotel is about 5 minutes walk from the peace park which means our hotel is well within the zone that was totally destroyed by the atomic bomb. The before and after pictures at the museum in the peace park were a stark illustration of the destruction. The exhibits at the museum were frightening and deeply saddening. The peace park its self was tranquil when we walked through it but later became bustling with tourists. I rang the peace bell and left an offering at the peace flame. The flame will not be extinguished until all nuclear weapons are removed from the earth.

In the peace park we came across a collection of stones from Ben Nevis brought over in the 1970s as a symbol of peace from Scotland.

The peace park

The phoenix trees found growing just over 1km from the center of the blast and transplanted to the peace park in the 1970s

The A-bomb dome

After visiting the peace park and the museum we walked to Hiroshima castle (a replica of the original)