Day 62 – Kyoto to Hiroshima
Today we slept in! As we had an early bus ride to Hiroshima, we ended up hailing a taxi instead of walking to Kyoto Station as we had planned. The taxi was super clean, even though the car itself looked old. The doors also opened automatically, which is something I kept seeing, but was never sure if it was my mind playing tricks or not. I could finally confirm that the doors of the taxi did in fact close and open automatically! Freaking cool!
At the bus stop, we waited for until the bus came. Our mate from last night was also going to catch the bus with us, but he was no where to be seen. We also had no way to contact him, so as we sat on the bus keeping a look out for him. Finally with 1 minute until departure, we saw him in the distance. I quickly went to the driver and told him to wait, but the driver was not happy at all. I finally told the driver that I will grab him and come back. So I ran off the bus and told our friend to hurry up. The driver was not happy one bit as we left 3 minutes after schedule.
Hoods over the seats for privacy in the Willer Bus.
The rest of the 360km journey had no incidents. Once in Kyoto we took the tram towards our accommodation at Hostel Mallika. The hostel was perfectly located right in front of the Hiroshima Peace Museum.
Spring of Prayers for the victims of the Hiroshima bombings.
The Peace Museum, is in memory of the atomic bomb that was used in WWII to demolish Hiroshima and spark Japan’s surrender. It was surreal to know that the pictures we were seeing, was what the place looked like right after the bombing. The museum goes through stories of survivors, information about the bomb, the history of the war, history of nuclear weapons, and letters showing the decision to bomb Japan instead of Germany.
Before After
One of the main reasons the museum exists is to promote the disarmament of nuclear weapons around the globe. We didn’t get to see the main building as it was getting earthquake proofing at the time we were there (Late October 2018). T
here is also a program called Mayors for Peace (http://www.mayorsforpeace.org/english/), which is a cool concept. It was nice to see that my hometown in Melbourne was part of the group, but that being said I had no idea until I looked it up.
This was truly a confronting experience, which I hope I don’t forget any time soon, as it is a reminder of what armed conflicts are still doing around our world. 🙁