25/3/18 I arrived very early in Hiroshima by train, where a volunteer lady offers me a city map. I hope to drop my bags at the hostel. The owner sent me a video on how to get to the hostel from the train station! Hard to miss the only light blue building we can see from the station itself. The entrance looks cute but old. It is about 10am, the checkin is not before 4pm, but they have 3 lockers outside, I can leave my small suitcase and my big backpack but the big bag does not fit. Well at least I get to use my security cable once – There is a metal pole on the side of the outside wall. I walk to the city to explore and decide to visit the memorial museum. Unfortunately the main building is in renovation due to the earthquake (again!) but they moved some items into the small building. The visit is quite sad and moving. What the Japanese people had to suffer is atrocious. They now try to tell the rest of the world the danger and damage of nuclear weapons despite all the world leaders desire to be more and more equiped. The visit was a good reminder of the human cruelty, the collateral damage of war for economy and power. The building was not too crowded as it was still early morning. I paid for the audio guide which was not worth the money as it reads word for word what is written on the panels everywhere. The park around the memorial is very nice, people enjoy it so much they come for picnic or sit on a bench. The memorial has been built on top of the area that was targeted by the bomb, but you can’t tell what happened just by the look of it. The area is no nice and peaceful, green and clean. Everything has been rebuilt except for 1 building still standing to remind the city. After a bit of dark mood I check on the map and decide to look for the Hiroshima castle. It is a big square castle, surrounded by water to discourage attackers of ancient times. A tourist guide propose a tour on a boat that I accept. 30 min of slow mo around the castle with a funny energetic Japanese girl who speaks a few words of English. She turns her recorder on and we hear some calming flute music while she teaches us a bit of history. After the boat trip I still want to see the castle from the inside so I pay for a ticket (after finishing my black sesame ice cream because you can’t eat inside says the ticket lady). The inside does not have much authenticity left. It is an exhibition of objects, samouraï armors, paintings from the past behind glass, much like a museum but the inside is empty. The stairs have been (re?)built for tourists and there are arrows everywhere to guide your visit, only there a nice view from the top.
I came back at the hostel around 5 for checkin, the hostel was really small and stinky. I shared the room with 3 other Japanese girls, one of them lives in Brazil. I have the top bunker bed, but the ceiling is tall enough I will manage. There is only 1 shower, 1 toilet and 1 sink for the house, not so clean so I prefer skipping the shower here, will take it in the next place tomorrow. The only good thing is there is bread, jam and tea for breakfast.
