Voyage Junkie

Near the garden sits Hiroshima Castle.  It is of course entirely rebuilt, as it was blown to bits during the bombing.  While the castle was renovated (a few times, actually), the grounds around it remain a testament to the bombing.  Remains of buildings, trees, and other structures adorn the grounds.  People play and picnic in the grass among the ruins, or sit on the old, broken stones and read.  It is a vision, and a testament to what this city has been through.  The castle functions as a museum, upon entering which you must "Please drop the mud of the shoes bottom with the mat,and enter" (sic).  The castle museum holds a lot of ancient history from the area and just a little of the bombing, so it was a nice way to ease into our hard day of facing up to the atomic destruction our country heaped on Japan. Below is a former great fountain that stood near one entrance to the castle grounds.  It is now a home to new trees.  It is a very large ...

We headed to Hiroshima via shinkansen  on April 5th.  After a few cold days in Kyoto and Nara we welcomed the southerly trajectory and the warmth it offered.  First order of business: explore the city.  We had picked a wonderful hotel to stay at, in the heart of downtown right off an old trolley line (still running, and packed all the time).  We took advantage of this and spent our first evening walking the city, taking in shops, sights, and my first taste of Okinawan cuisine. The next morning was beautiful and held the promise of a warm day.  We decided to tackle quite a bit in the first day, as we only had two full days to spend in Hiroshima. The first part is covered here.  We went to a beautiful garden complex called the Shukkeien , which literally means the "scale model garden."  It is modeled after China's  Xihu , or West Lake.  The garden evokes, in miniature, a multitude of terrains, aesthetics, and scenic views.  To the l...