Japan trip 8. Hiroshima Memorial Park

Hiroshima is the a principal city of Chugaku region. It has a deep history and slightly painful mankind's history. The nuclear bomb that destructed the city and ended world war 2. Today, the place where the "Little boy" was dropped has been replaced with a museum and monument of peace.

Overall, there are two major must-see places in Hiroshima:
1. The Peace Memorial Park
2. Miyajima island

The Peace Memorial park is a 120,000 square meters park within the downtown area, surrounded by lush green trees, and striking peace monuments. Inside the park, there are three building: The A-Bomb Dome, Cenotaph and the museum.

Memorial Cenotaph

 This is the Memorial Cenotaph hoping to reconstruct the ruined Hiroshima as a peaceful city. Ex-professor of Tokyo University, Tange Kenzo, designed the monument and its saddle-shaped roof in the hope of protecting those victims from the rain. The cenotaph carries an epitaph: "Rest in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated". The central stone room carries the list of name of both domestic and overseas A-bomb victims (1).

A-Bomb Dome

A-Bomb Dome building, which was designed by a Czech architect in 1915, had been used as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall. Hiroshima citizens back then loved so much European modern-style buildings of the time. In 1912, the National Confectionery Exposition was held in this place. From that exposition, Baumkuchen, which represented German cake (1)was manufactured and sold in Japan for the first time.

Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum

The museum is rather small so you can see it within an hour or so. Inside the museum, you can see the timeline moments before and after the nuclear bomb touched Hiroshima. You could also see the remnants of things that was left from the devastating event. It was quite an experience for me. There was chill that runs in my spine, imagining how the people dealt with the sheer destruction and how they lived afterward.

Paper Crane from children from all over Japan - and the world.

How to get there

From Tokyo: Take the Shinkansen to Hiroshima station.
Tokyo and Hiroshima are connected with each other by the JR Tokaido/Sanyo Shinkansen. Direct Nozomi trains require about four hours to reach Hiroshima from Tokyo. By Hikari and Sakura trains, the trip takes about five hours with a transfer of trains at Shin-Osaka Station. If you have JR Pass, it already cover the shinkansen using Hikari and Sakura trains.

If you don't have JR Pass. The regular one way fare from Tokyo to Hiroshima is 18,040 yen for a non-reserved seat on any train, around 18,500 yen for a reserved seat on Hikari and Sakura trains and around 19,000 yen for a reserved seat on a Nozomi train (2).

From Hiroshima station to the memorial:
There is a bus service that runs to the Memorial Park. You can use your JR pass to (YAY JR PASS).

From Hiroshima station to Miyajima Island:
To reach the ferry port from Hiroshima Station, take the JR Sanyo Line to Miyajimaguchi Station (25 minutes, 410 yen one way, covered by the Japan Rail Pass). Alternatively, you can take tram line number 2 from central Hiroshima bound for Miyajimaguchi. The tram is slower, but costs only 260 yen one way (not covered by the Japan Rail Pass).
From Miyajimaguchi Station, it is a short walk to the ferry pier, from where ferries depart frequently for Miyajima. There are two competing ferry companies operating from this port: JR and Matsudai. Both companies' ferry rides take 10 minutes and both cost 180 yen one way. The Japan Rail Pass is valid on JR ferries.

I have the JR pass so I think, why not me coming to Hiroshima, since it is near Kyoto-Osaka (than Tokyo of course). It also bear the mark of Japan history, and it meant something for me as well.

So I arrange trip from Tokyo to Hiroshima first before coming to Osaka. I only wanted to visit the Hiroshima memorial, and the island near Hiroshima.

References:
http://visithiroshima.net/world_heritage/a-bomb_dome.html