It was an embarrassment of riches for tours in Hiroshima. History, castles, calligraphy classes… I chose Miyajima Island and Itsukushima Shrine for its iconic “floating” torii gate. Rain was forecast and it was overcast all day, so I was a bit worried about photography. It was a 45-minute bus ride to get to the ferry, where our guide bought tickets on the ferry that sailed by the torii for a “from the sea” view.
The Shrine, and thus the torii, are built on a tidal plain. We arrived while the tide was high and just starting to recede, so we could not walk out and touch the gate. But there are good shots to be had along the path to the shrine.
Like Shinto shrines I visited in Nara, deer are considered sacred – being messengers of the gods and such. The lazy, spoiled brats are all over the place. They don’t even beg for food as it’s given to them non-stop by tourists.
There wasn’t anything amazing in the shrine (with the exception of a wedding occurring amongst the swarms of tourists), but there was a wall of sake barrels. Seems the gods are thirsty, so sake barrels are a standard thing donated to Shinto shrines.
To add to the odd, our guide spotted baby fugu blowfish near one of the statues. Fugu sashimi is a big delicacy, but if it is not prepared correctly it could kill you.
It is said there are 8 million Shinto gods/spirits in Japan. This particular shine is to the three sea-goddesses born from the sun-goddess’s brother. However, a 5-minute walk down the street from the main shrine is another shrine to someone else. However, it does celebrate Taira no Kiyomori, who was a major force in constructing Itsukushima Shrine.
This was only a couple of hours tour, and you can’t visit Hiroshima without going to the Peace Memorial Park. I didn’t have time to visit the museum, which our guide explained focuses on the personal stories rather than the geo-political issues of the atomic bomb.
The cherry blossoms are only days away from full bloom in Hiroshima, which is south of Osaka and Tokyo (thus warmer).
In Japan, cranes represent good fortune and long life. Origami cranes, or “orizuru“, is a classic origami item. Stringing many origami cranes together is called “senbazuru” has come to represent recovery from illness and desire for peace after a young victim of the bombing folded many orizuru as she died from leukemia. As you’d expect, there are many senbazuru in Peace Park.
Hiroshima is on my list of places to return to.
Tidbits
- In an earlier post I complained how none of the buses had the correct time. By many hours wrong. However, in Japan EVERY bus showed the correct time.
- Everything has gone smoothly in Japan, but probably because how over-staffed it was. There are three aged port guards ensuring we take the obvious, exhaustively marked path from the ship to the only building here. The tourist information desk has six helpful ladies who sing out “Good Morning” as we walk past. It’s comforting, but I wonder about costs. Are they all volunteers?
- I’ve tried various Japanese snacks over the last week, and all are over-wrapped. Pretty box with each item individually vacuum seal wrapped, with each wrap including a desiccant pack. I now feel that eating directly from a bag of Nachos is somehow dangerous.