G-TOUR: Miyajima Island and Hiroshima

Above, Miyajima Island's Torii Gate.

Almost 59 years to the day that the crew of the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945, G-TOUR visited Hiroshima's Peace Park and Museum. We took a bullet train from Kyoto to Hiroshima.

Before touring Peace Park, the tour was first taken to a ferry station for an excursion to Miyajima Island.

Miyajima is a beautiful island in the Seto Inland Sea. While there, the tourists were greeted by dozens of tame, and hungry, deer. The deer wander around the town on Miyajima and beg for food. And, they also have a tendancy to grab any items sticking out of one's pocket and start chewing on it.

The town has many food and gift shops and they have miniature Torii Gate nick-nacks for purchase.

The tour also visited the Itsukushima Shrine.

After visiting Miyajima Island, we returned by ferry to the mainland to be bused to the Hiroshima Peace Park and Museum. The park consists of the Atomic Bomb Dome, which was the Industrial Promotion Hall before the war, and it is kept preserved in its state of near destruction.

Above, the Atomic Bomb Dome.

The park has a flame that will be extinguished when all nuclear weapons are banned. There is also a cenotaph memorial to the people killed in the bomb blast. The museum has many displays of artifacts from the bomb damage along with films, models, dioramas and replicas of the bomb. Survivors participate in seminars at the museum.

We returned to Kyoto via bullet train and when we arrived, we wandered inside of the New Kyoto Station, which was featured in Gamera 3.

Next day: Osaka Castle and Toei Studios.