We woke up to news reports of the incoming Typhoon Lan on the news and rumours of disruption to public transport. The Japan Rail website was being updated through the day so we were keeping an eye on the weather. For now however, blue skies and heat was persisting as we made our way to the train station to get to Hiroshima.
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Shinkansen Fun
Japan has a lot of rules. I’m a rule follower. Always have been. I’ve never met a procedure, policy, or set of instructions I can’t obsess over.
My wife is a little bit more “here’s to the crazy ones” or “When I am old I will wear purple” than I could ever be. 1
You’ll see lots of hyperbolic videos on Youtube if you prepare to go to Japan of “10 THINGS YOU SHOULD NOT DO IF YOU VISIT JAPAN” with a worried looking face and a big Red Cross overlaid over the top. 🙄
I hate these sorts of videos. Yes there are cultural and societal differences, but you’re not going to an alien planet. People are people. Kindness, sympathy and understanding is (mostly) in everyone and to be found everywhere.
From my personal experience, if you’re respectful and polite, even if there’s a misunderstanding, people are well aware you’re a tourist and are going to do silly touristy things. Especially in tourism hot spots like Tokyo and Osaka. No one is going to bite your head off or kick you out of a place for minor indiscretions. You should absolutely prepare and read up on where you’re going and mannerisms on the trains, at restaurants etc. That’s part of exploring a new place and culture, but don’t obsess. There are some things such as taking phone calls on trams/trains which are absolutely a NO GO but for these more serious indiscretions there are signs everywhere pointing them out. Read them, follow them. You’ll be fine.
I did however witness, and partially get involved in a faux pas on the Shinkansen.
If you travel on the Shinkansen in Japan, and have large baggage, you can reserve specific seats at the back of each carriage that have baggage storage behind them. You’ll see YouTube videos on this topic as well, trying to stress you out about the amount of luggage storage on the Shinkansen and having to reserve these special seats at all costs. As long as you don’t have Kardashian family levels of luggage….you’ll be ok.
Normal Shinkansen seats overhead storage is quite ample for standard size luggage, and if you’re sat in a row with travel companions, there’s even room to have suitcases angled narrowly between seats as well. It’s not a huge deal. As long as it’s the same size as luggage you wouldn’t need to pay extra for to put in an airplane hold and you don’t have multiple bags each you’ll be fine.
We’d booked the luggage area in this case because they were available and with 4 of us with a bag each, it’d be nice to just put them all in one place and not deal with the Tetris style logistics of what’s going where.
If you don’t have one of these seats booked, you CANNOT use this area for your luggage There are several large signs pointing this out.
As well as ourselves, there was a Japanese man with a fold up bicycle in this row of seats. He was quite protective of it and ensured it was basically as far away from our baggage as it could possibly be. On occasion he would nervously eye his bike as if he’d expect it to suddenly vanish.
The train set off and a couple of stops in, an Italian tourist who’d got on the train and was seated further up the carriage wheeled her baggage down and placed it in the oversized baggage area. Immediately, the Japanese man was quietly incensed and started speaking to her in rather curt Japanese, pointing to the signs that say this was explicitly forbidden. You could tell he wasn’t going to be trifled with over this indiscretion. She was confused and saying she didn’t understand what was going on. She would try to put her baggage in the area and the man would start to point at the signs again. She did speak a little English so I stepped in as an arbiter to explain where she’d gone wrong.
After pointing to the sign, advising this area if for these seats only and cannot be used by the whole train, she continued to point to the free space in the area. I advised her whilst I personally wasn’t that bothered about where she put her luggage, I was pretty much 100% positive the Japanese gentleman who hadn’t taken his steely gaze off her would most certainly call the conductor soon if she didn’t remove her bag.
Eventually she acquiesced, took her bag back and just before wheeling it back to her seat, she locked eyes with me and shouted for the whole train to hear.
“You….are NOT a Gentleman! 😤”2
Dear reader, I sadly have to agree! In my defence, I never said I was! 🤭 I was only trying to help clear up the misunderstanding! 😔
Myself and the Japanese gentleman gave each other a brief nod, satisfied that rule following justice had been dispensed and the natural order of things had resumed. Thankfully the rest of the ride was without incident and I kicked back and watched the beautiful rolling scenery once more.
Since this holiday, it’s become quite common for my family to repeat the “not a gentleman” quote whenever I’m doing something they don’t agree with. It’s a phrase added to the family vocabulary.
Keeping an eye on the Typhoon, there was starting to be rumblings that trains may be cancelled tomorrow and to check back later for updates…
Hiroshima Peace Memorial/Genbaku Dome
After checking into our hotel and using their really handy luggage storage (for free, using your IC card as a lock), we made our way over to the Peace Park and Genbaku Dome.
The Dome was an exhibition hall used for art and educational purposes. As it was nearly directly underneath the bomb when it detonated, it managed to resist the downward force of the blast and large portions remained standing, whilst the surrounding area was entirely flattened.
It’s been preserved ever since as as symbol of world peace, the desire for the elimination of nuclear weapons and serves as as dark reminder of the destructive power of these weapons.
It was humbling to be stood in front of such a piece of living history. Especially on such a beautiful sunny day having got here on a tram seeing the vibrant and beautiful city that exists today.
Peace Memorial Park
The Peace Memorial Park is a humbling and beautiful space to visit, with several monuments to those affected by the bombing. There are paper cranes around several of the monuments from the story of Sadako Sasaki and the children’s peace monument contains her image at the top. I recommend you click the link to read her story and the cultural significance of the cranes explained better than I could put to words here.
Peace Memorial Museum
The queue for the Peace Memorial Museum was pretty large. I think in total it took about an hour or so of queuing to get in, but this gave us time to get some refreshments in the intense heat and check the trains further. There was no real update on the official JR rail sites, but reading from other sources online and seeing what had happened during previous typhoons it became clear that trains from tomorrow onwards might be a bit dicey. JR promised updates later in the day, so we decided to put it aside for now and strategise later.
I didn’t take any photos inside the museum. You are allowed, but this was a personal decision as I wanted to just absorb the knowledge and be in the moment rather than attempt to document it.
Traversing this exhibit and reading the stories was one of the most effecting experiences of my life. The design of the space made by Tanseisha is striking in its design. The entire space is black, creating an entire focus around the experience and what’s on display. Like a statement that the power of what you’re looking at and reading the history of doesn’t need anything else. It speaks for itself.
It won a D&AD Yellow Pencil for its design an it’s very well deserved. It’s incredibly well done.
The artefacts and the stories behind them are heartbreakingly moving. Whilst initially the exhibit focuses on the history of the city, the immediate bombing and the effects, it soon focuses in on these incredibly personal stories of tragedy on a macro level, Stories of families looking for lost members, dealing with loss, survival and how to cope, not only immediately, but decades later. Seeing the keepsakes and items on display matching to the people and their stories, your heart broke a little bit more each time as most of these stories ended the same way, with a statement of “….they died shortly afterwards” or “…was never found”.
As we still live in times of conflict, war and rising hatred, this exhibit makes you remember that outside of the ruling classes, politics and machinations of countries around the world, the majority of people want to just live in peace and enjoy their life.
After a brief sit on a bench with my thoughts, and I’m not too proud to admit to having to wipe some tears away, we moved onto the second part of the exhibit which deals more in the decades since the bombing with the nuclear proliferation, the Cold War and disarmament efforts. All really interesting to read about as well.
It’s a difficult, upsetting and incredibly important place to visit. Reading what I’ve wrote I still don’t think I can do justice to the experience. I’m humbled to have got to visit this place, listen and experience it. I would strongly encourage you to do the same should you visit Japan.
Re-entering the vibrant city in the sweltering Japanese summer afterwards was staggering. To see Hiroshima today without the context of its past, you would never know without reminders such as this park that such a thing could have happened here.
Lunch and Decision Making
Whilst not officially announced, reading between the lines it became more and more obvious that the trains were probably going to be disrupted tomorrow. Maybe for multiple days. So we had to make a decision. Stay here and possibly get stuck with less time back in Tokyo for our final section of the trip, or cut our stay back and leave first thing in the morning.
We had lunch at an incredible local bar/brewery HNB. 3 and had a family meeting where we discussed our options.
As well as Hiroshima itself, we’d wanted to visit Itsukushima, otherwise known as Miyajima 4 a small island known for its friendly (cheeky?) deer, beautiful tori gate in the ocean and wonderful views. We were feeling quite sad that we wouldn’t be able to do this tomorrow if we had to leave, but we also didn’t want to be stuck and have the rest of our plans disrupted. We decided it would be sensible to get back to Tokyo, and booked a Shinkansen online for very early in the morning (around 7am) and found a hotel in Tokyo we could book.
We sat there a bit deflated wishing we could still have visited Itsukushima… I had an idea and casually said “Well why don’t we just go right now…🤷♂️” This started a flurry of investigation as we looked up how often the trains were, how often the ferries ran and we realised it was incredibly doable!
After properly checking into our hotel and dropping our bags off, we set off to Itsukushima! 🏃♂️💨
Itsukushima
We were on the ferry and nearly at Itsukushima by around 5pm. This rush decision was fortuitous as coming at this time means we got some absolutely beautiful light as the summer evening kicked in. We were excited as we saw the famous Torii gate as we came into the port.
Most of the food stalls and stores had closed for the day but some shops were still open. We immediately saw the famous deer as well as a young Japanese couple took their eye off their belongings as they posed for photos resulting in a deer emptying their bag and drinking the dregs of one of their cups 🤭
We walked along the beach, took in the sights and took a look in some of the tourist shops. My son found a Miyajima (the other name for the island) shirt with a Deer on it. It was a spoof of the north face logo and quite cute. The old couple that ran the shop were very welcoming. The husband asked in English where we had travelled from, and when we said the UK he very excitingly shouted to his wife “Igirisu!” And pointed to us. She smiled and waved and went back to stocking the shelves she was tending to.
My son paid for his shirt, when the husband with a cheeky smile made sure his wife wasn’t looking, then gave us back more change that we should have got, and said “SHHHHH. Secret discount”. As we left the store they both stood in the doorway and said (again in English) “Please come here again!” And waved us on.
Truly in the golden hour now, our thoughts went more to photography opportunities with the beautiful Torii in the water and we lounged around taking photos and generally relaxing.
A couple of Japanese girls asked my eldest son if he’d take a photo of them. He obliged and one girl said “You are very handsome” and they then ran off giggling 🤣 as my son turned as red as the Torii gate.
I was really glad we came here later on in the day, The lighting and atmosphere was wonderful and truly relaxing.
As the sun set deeper behind the mountains, we got the ferry back and arrived back near our hotel around 8pm.
We spent way too much in the Lawson combini attached to our hotel, including the delicious Karaagekun or “combini chicken”. I drank a Suntory Tris Lemon Highball, we tried our other assorted snacks, watched Japanese TV, I showered then squeezed myself into the hotel PJ’s and we went to sleep ready for our early unscheduled trip back to Tokyo.
Typhoon’s, Shinkansen’s and Tokyo bound
The next day, we got our early Shinkansen to Tokyo, hastily eating a garlic sausage onigiri in the station before getting on. And….we’d made the right decision. Later Shinkansen’s were all cancelled.
I’m sad I didn’t get more time in Hiroshima to explore more of its “now” vs the past it’s so famous for. What I did get to see was vibrant, kind hearted and full of life and culture. I’d have loved to explore more of this exciting metropolis.
Plus…I never got to try true Hiroshima Okonomiyaki!
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And I admire her greatly for it 😍. She’s so much braver than I could ever be!
Of course, because my life is apparently a sitcom plot, embarrassingly we bumped into her multiple times all over Hiroshima AND Itsukushima 🤦♂️. At one point I actually thought she was stalking me and waiting for a moment to reclaim her luggage storage honour.
Amazing beer and food! Well worth a visit!
“Shrine Island”
