Hi all!

We visited Hiroshima last weekend for the long weekend, as Monday was a public holiday in Japan (15th Sept). It took 4.5 hours on the bullet train from Tokyo Station and we arrived early evening Friday...

On Saturday we visited the Tori Gate Shrine (Itsukushima Shrine) on Miyajima Island, about an hour from Hiroshima by train then boat... one of the top 3 most scenic views in Japan! We were very lucky with the weather as it was amazing sunshine and blue skies, and so we stayed there for the whole day and took a boat to the shrine at high tide and then walked out to it at low tide...

On day 2 we visited the Peace Memorial Park and the A-Bomb Dome, which is the only remaining building after the Atomic Bomb in 1945. The museum was an emotional visit as you could imagine, but very well put together with many artefacts from after the A-Bomb. Sad to see the impact on Hiroshima the city and the people... as well as the longstanding after effects of radiation. A lot of the Peace Park had little colourful paper cranes made from origami, as a tribute to one of the little girls who died of radiation poisoning after the bomb... the story was she thought if she could make 1000 paper cranes she could have one wish that might make her get better... but she died when she was at 658 cranes. So all around the park are colourful paper cranes, many from schools and children across the world today. We also visited the Reconciliation Statue - one of which is present in Coventry Cathedral (and Darren visited it earlier this year), and one in Hiroshima... amazing to think there are 2 in the world, and we have visited them in the space of 6 months!

All in all a really interesting weekend, Hiroshima as a city is beautiful, lots of waterways and easy to walk around - esp in the warmth and sunshine.

I have posted some photos from each day... so you can share our experience.

Thanks and speak soon, lots of love Cathy and Darren xxx