A Day In Hiroshima

From Yamanouchi I made my way to Hiroshima. I did visit here 10 years ago, however it was a brief as Miyajima was our goal destination that day and visiting the torii and deer. As this was when I was with my parents, whom on their previous trip did the full Peace Park and the Memorial Museum. We visited the park on our tip but not the museum. And as I didn’t get to see the museum I pretty much planned this return so that I could take my time and visit the museum. 10 years ago even just visiting this park hit me hard. When I saw the Atomic Bomb Dome my eyes filled with tears. So I knew that visiting the museum this time round was going to be an emotional experience. It was. It was all similar to the feelings I had visiting the museum at St. Nikolai church in Hamburg.

I didn’t take any photos or anything inside the memorial museum, I was there purely for the moment and not thinking about content creation at all for a bit. I really just wanted to allow myself to connect in and have the experience for myself. It is highly worth visiting and including in your itinerary if you go to Japan. I am glad that I planned to give myself this day to explore the city more on my own.

Hiroshima itself is lovely. I love it. The people here are very friendly, and of all cities in Japan I find this is where you are most likely to have Japanese people come talk to you. I had one guy stop and chat to me for about 20 minutes in the park, just after my museum visit. Which to be honest, was quite nice after that emotional experience to just get to chat with someone for a bit. Sure it got a bit weird at the end of the conversation when he wanted to kiss my hand cos that’s what he has seen in western television. Besides that, it was a normal conversation.

I then went and checked out the Hiroshima Museum of Art. There just happened to also be a Picasso exhibition on, so of course I checked that out. I am just going to say, Japanese are my favourite people to be in a museum with. The order and respect for moving around spaces is amazing. The politeness of Japanese society remains in museums and I love it. The audience here I feel was a lot more of a local crowd especially those visiting the Picasso exhibition.

Walking around other parts of the art museum was also great. I got to see some Japanese artists that I’m not so familiar with alongside other pieces that I was. I did get rather excited when I saw the Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec piece.

I then made my way to Hiroshima Castle and enjoyed my visit here too. I had a fantastic chat with one of the museum volunteers here who happily led me around the floor that we met on, chatting with me, and showing me more bits and pieces. She picked up on my interest in the calligraphy and provided me with some great information that I wouldn’t have been able to garner on my own there as much. It was really nice to chat with and share opinions on the strength and style of the brush strokes.