Today we got up early and headed off to the Hiroshima Memorial Peace Park, which conveniently was within walking distance of our hotel. Although it was a bit smaller than I expected, there were lots of things to see there.
When you first enter the park, the first thing you see is this fountain.
After walking under the museum (which we'll come back to later) you come upon the the Cenotaph. If you look thru the arch of the Cenotaph, you can see the A-Bomb Dome in the distance. What is now know as the Bomb Dome was originally called the Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall.
Just behind the cenotaph (which you can see in the bottom right picture above), is the memorial eternal peace flame.
The next monument we came upon in the park was Children's Peace Monument.
All of the colorful things you see in boxes behind the statue are folded paper cranes.
There is a popular belief in Japan that if you fold 1,000 paper cranes one of your wishes would come true. In 1955, three years after the bombing of Hiroshima, a girl named Sadako Sasaki died of leukemia due to exposure radiation from the bomb. Although she only managed to fold 644 cranes before she died (each one with a wish that she would recover and live), she had a profound impact on her friends and classmates. They finished her 1,000 cranes for her and then began to raise money from children all over Japan to build a statue in honor of Sadako. This Children's Peace monument is the result.
(The statue on the top of the granite pedestal is Sadako holding a golden crane in her outstreched arms). Every year, children fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed around the statue. (The boxes behind the statue contain thousands of different colored cranes).
As we continued walking around the park, we came across many different statues, sculptures and other smaller monuments like the ones pictured below:
The next monument we encountered was the A-Bomb Memorial Mound. Being near the hypocenter of the explosion, the corpses of many unknown victims were brought to this point and cremated. Inside the vault that lies underneath this mound are the ashes of roughly 70,000 vicitms of the bomb. Most of these ashes were unclaimed because either the entire family perished or the victim's identity was unknown.
The Memorial Bell of Peace was dedicated in 1964. People ring the bell in hopes for peace throughout the world.
And finally, we came across what is probably the most famous part of the memorial peace park, the Bomb Dome. It's amazing that something like the Bomb Dome would still be standing after what it went thru. Especially since the building was barely 150 meters from the hypocenter of the explosion.
Here is the dome from across the river:
And more pictures as we got closer. Even with all the reinforcements that are helping to hold it together, it's surprising that this building is still in some semblance of one piece.
After walking thru the park (there were a lot of school groups also touring there as well), we headed to the museum that was located there. It was definitely a very somber experience to go thru that museum. Inside they had lots of pictures, models, reconstructions, and even a scaled down version of the top of the bomb dome.
To see the destruction caused by the A-Bomb was very eye opening, especially when seeing a before and after model of what the area looked like.
One other interesting fact that I learned at the museum that I didn't know before is that every mayor of Hiroshima since the bombing has sent a letter of protest whenever a nuclear bomb test takes place. Below is a picture of copies of every single letter ever written.
But I think the part that made it hit home the most is the fact that all the pieces (of clothing, etc) had a name attached to it. It definitely enforced the amount of pain and suffering that was caused by the bomb.
After the Peace Park, we headed over towards Hiroshima Castle. On the way, we happened to pass by the Hiroshima Green Hall (where the Glay concert was going to be at). Even though it was still hours before the concert, there were already people hanging out around the arena all dressed in their Glay outfits. Stupid me didn't take any pictures.
As we were coming up to Hiroshima castle, we were able to see something I thought was very interesting.
There was apparently a Kendo tournament going on consisting mainly younger kids and teenagers. We stopped a bit and watched. That was fun.
Then we headed to the castle itself.
Well, as expected, after seeing Himeji Castle and Osaka Castle, Hiroshima castle was ok, but nothing spectacular (especially since it was destroyed by the A-Bomb and rebuilt). Here are a few of the different suits of armor on display inside the castle.
But, the view from the top wasn't too bad.
The castle was really the last thing that I wanted to see, so we decided to go grab some lunch. We found an Italian place in one of the big shopping areas there and sat down for lunch.
After lunch, it was time to split up again. I needed to head back to the hall where the concert was so that I could find myself a ticket. It was a lot more crowded than the first time we passed it. I started wandering around looking for someone who looked like a scalper (what exactly they look like, I'm not sure -_^).
I passed by several groups of girls holding signs, but I just assumed they were looking for tickets. But, as luck would have it, I passed by a couple of girls holding a sign. I took a closer look at it and read 1-mai (1 ticket) and 5000 yen. Wait-a-minute... I think they're SELLING a ticket! I wonder if those other girls were selling tickets too?!? Oh well. I asked them, and sure enough, they had one extra ticket for sale (and cheaper than face value too!! yay!). So, needless to say, I bought the ticket from them.
After securing my ticket, I wandered over to where they were selling the concert goods. I wasn't planning on buying anything, but went ahead and got a concert book and phone strap. After looking at all the stuff, I sat down outside to wait for the doors to open and enjoy the nice weather.
While I was sitting there, a couple of girls, named Noriko and Sayaka, came up to me and asked if
I really liked Glay. (I think they were surprised a gaijin actually liked Glay ^_^). We got to talking about this and that for about 30 minutes or so. That was a lot of fun.I really hope I get a copy of the picture that Sayaka took of us. I also got their emails, so I'll have to drop them a line when I get home. (As a matter of fact, I did receive the picture. Sayaka is on the left and Noriko is on the right)
Eventually, it was time for the doors to open so we headed our separate ways and I went to my seat. (which turned out to be REALLY good. I wasn't on the arena floor, but I was at about a 45 degree angle from the stage, so I could see everything really well.) I'll say one thing, Glay puts on a GREAT show. The crowd was really into it as well. It was so much fun! I'm glad I could get a ticket.
I'm hard pressed to say which concert was more enjoyable, Glay or MM. They were such different concerts....
Well, tomorrow its off to Miyajima.
