Hiroshima 2024/09/09-13
Day 1-2
Long time no see... again... This was the worst summer ever. As in, officially the hottest ever with three times as many days over 35°C than usual. Somewhere around 55 days... orz Kyoto does know how to welcome me back ^^; So, I was laying low and dying every time I needed to step out of my flat. It turned out that this ground floor (and not wood) apartment does not heat as fast as my previous ones, so I could get through the day without air-con, but barely, so not much productivity until the evening from me, when I turned it on. You might ask why not the other way round? I cannot sleep in the heat (even in winter I turn the heating off for the night), and without sleeping I'm useless, so I use the air-con from evening to morning. This also meant that I was hardly doing anything for sightseeing, some exhibitions here and there, but it was just too hot.
Still, I thought it can't be that I'm not traveling during the holiday (especially since I'm having a holiday the first time in six years...), so I went to Hiroshima for the first time. It was a mistake. I expected lower temperatures in September, but no, around 35°C every day, and it was hellish. No trips in summer ever again. (I'm starting to feel like schools should just power through summer with air-conditioning and save the longer holiday for fall, September-October, when you can actually enjoy it too. Anyway, I took five days for Hiroshima to make it a slow trip, one that I could survive despite the heat - it was difficult anyway.
Day 1
Not living in the countryside is heavenly for transportation. Hiroshima is very close by Shinkansen, so I ticked off some basic sightseeing on the first day already. Like the Atomic Bomb Dome and the park (skipped the museum, I just didn't have the energy in the heat); Shukkeien Garden, a small but gorgeous park; Hiroshima Castle, which is more of an observatory with historical exhibition - like Osaka Castle, but much smaller. It doesn't have air-conditioning though (or too weak), so I had to spend five minutes in front of a high power fan, because I was about to pass out (not exaggerating...). Quite telling that all the people who came out of the castle flocked to the tiny shop selling ice cream - me included ^^; I closed the day in the shopping district afterward.
Day 2
I tried to take it easy, but the morning was hard. I wanted to visit some shrines and the Peace Monument just north of the station on a hill. It turned out to be a hill with tons of shrines, hiking routes, and I only saw a portion of everything there. It was 433 steps uphill in 35°C in a long skirt (pants stick to you too much). The steps were a bit steep in the second half too (not pictured). Every now and then they had some wise things to say (see above) while mentioning how much was left XD At the top there was this monument with a statue - concrete with metal and no shade at the benches anywhere!!! The view was great, but difficult to rest before going back down... I could refresh at the Hiroshima Museum of Art, fortunately. They had a nihonga exhibition, and since I have a new course to teach starting this semester that deals with mostly premodern Japanese visual arts, it was a useful exhibition for me. I closed the day walking around Ujina island, one of the islands near the coast. I love the sea, I love islands, so it was a nice preparation for the main dish of this trip: Miyajima. There were beaches, but it's the wrong side of the tide with every seashell and debris washing out there. It is also sandy, and I don't like sandy beaches. Anyway, the view was nice.
tbc...
