Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

So calm and serene. Sunny and Green.
It was the same description given by the atomic bombs survivors moments before "Little Boy" was dropped. The US called it little boy but the impact and aftermath was so devastated it ended World War II. 


69 years later, and here I stood...with the same calmness and greenness. Clear water ran from the mountain to the sea. No one thought that trees would grow again on this land for many many years after the atomic bombings in 1945.

No visitors to Hiroshima will miss this Peace Memorial Park occupying a vast 122,100 square metre of space in the centre of Hiroshima. Hence we thought of dropping by here to learn, study and reflect upon this event.


Since we were staying in Miyajima Island instead of on the mainland Hiroshima, we took a speed boat to get here. Japanese Tourism really did fantastic job by providing every possible route/information/accessibility/promotion to any tourists in the world to visit every nooks and corners of Japan.

The speed boat leaves at Pier number 3 in Miyajima Island, which was a short distance from our Cottage Ryokan. The 45 minutes journey was so splendid because the person who operate the speedboat was so sweet and thoughtful. Though all tourists are local, he realised we weren't and made sure he did explanation in English and showed us the Pier that made Boeing 777 in Hiroshima.

and he had to add the one that made MH370 as well...
Oh why thank you for reminding but I am sure he meant it in a good way since we were from Malaysia.

The speedboat has got a television with lots of promo videos on Miyajima Island and Hiroshima, but it's in Japanese. Soon all on board had their eyes glued into the TV except the two of us...bz lookin out at the sea because there's so many Oysters Farm!!!!

It's really convenient way to get around because the speed boat brought us directly to the Peace Memorial Park. No transfers needed, really door to door. Excellent!! Well done Japan Tourism.

JS sat there like a lil boy, in his short pants thinking hard. Don't know what was on his mind, because at moments and places like this, I don't implore. Especially when mine was busy seeking answers, but all my questions were clouded with no answers but with more questions.

So moral of the story is, wat's done being done. The scars are there...humans learnt from it and we move on. 

The famous A-Bomb Dome
It was the very few concrete remains from the bombing.

Before and after.
Later we were at the museum with photographs and maps charting the before and after looks of Hiroshima. I guess the most painful parts were looking at photos of survivors, body burnt, melted to beyond recognition....trying to walk in that state.

They didn't survive long and died soon...some within a few hours...a few days...a few weeks....Even those who survived, died from cancer, leukaemia and other complications years after the war.

Even concrete slabs and stairs wasn't spared. They were marred by the ugliness of the war. When the bomb exploded, shards of glass were sent on high impact and penetrated into the concrete walls. How could that happened? Concrete are so strong and yet they were penetrable. One could never imagine the strength of "Little Boy"

The Peace Bell
The map of the world is on the surface of the bell.


Ring the bell for its deep melodious toil.
The bell was donated by the Greek Embassy with the famous inscriptions by Socrates - Know Yourself.

Further down the park is the Children's Peace Monument with thousands and thousands of colorful paper origami. Donated by children all around the world. They even designed artwork from these folded paper cranes like painting - mostly depicting world peace.

At the top of this monument is a statue of Sasaki Sadako, the girl whom popularised paper cranes. She was exposed to the atomic bomb at the age of 2....then suffered through her lifetime with leukaemia. Sadako believed that if she managed to fold 1,000 paper cranes, she will recover from her illness. She only managed to fold 644 paper cranes before she's too weak to do anymore and soon died at the age of 12. Ten years after the Atomic Bombing. Fellow classmates felt so sorry and completed her paper cranes to make it to a thousand, to signify a thousand years - longevity.

haiiii it's so sad :((((


the Cenotaph which holds the list of victims' names.
The words carries a very deep meaning - Rest in Peace, for the error shall not be repeated.

True enough from that day onwards, atomic bombs were not used in wars
I do hope this will last and continue on. Also the Japanese Government has been writing to countries who's been using nuclear bombs on their concerns and efforts to discontinue it.

Copies of the letters were displayed at the museum....so many letters and to date there's been six hundreds over letters to His Excellency Barrack Obama...

beautiful pic composed by JS
We spent some hours basking under the sun, discussing world issues. Yeah don't ask me why, we lurve to have "brain-cells killer" topics. As the sun shone, our debates got hotter too and it's time to get some fresh juice from the cart, down the road. :)))))))))

School outings :)))))))
JS refers japanese school kids with hats as Chibi Maruko. I lurve Chibi Maruko-chan :))))

School outings are a huge thing in Japan, they even have their own photographer whom documents their outings. Most of the time, the students mistook JS as their photographer and smiled and waved at him. Soon the REAL McCOY photographer came over and look at JS

KAKAKAKAKA....
yea u dun steal ppl's rice bowl with ur Leica ok?

Then we took the scheduled speed boat back to Miyajima Island
For Humanity to survive we must learn from our mistakes


and 45 minutes later, we landed safely back in Miyajima Island. I know, usually tourists will stay at Mainland and come to Miyajima for daytrip but we thought it's more beautiful to stay in this island with all the wild deers and beautiful mountain, sea...to be able to roam in the island especially off peak hours like in the early morning and at nite is sure beautiful and zen.

Little Boy was dropped onto Hiroshima, precisely at 8.15am on 6th August 1945.......3 days later...Fat Man (I am not kidding u) was dropped at Nagasaki 11.02am....9th of August.

Read about my posting on Peace Memorial Park in Nagasaki...another sad sad place.
http://cher-ry.blogspot.com/2014/02/peace-park-and-hypocenter-nagasaki.html

Omotesando, Miyajima Island

Hello Ohaiyo Gozaimasu lil deer....are u talking to that pigeon over that? I'm not...coz ur friend pigeon has been chasing me for my crackers. Sorry I'm not sharing.

Miyajima is such a beautiful island with beautiful views, cute pretend-to-be-clueless wild deers, amazing surrounding and mountains. There's so much to do from enjoying the beautiful view of the Red Otorri to hiking up Mount Misen or just go for food suicide. Our favourite activity...kakakaka

The World's Biggest Rice Scoop!!! This we can use for our food suicide :)))) Made in 1983 it took 2 years and 10 months. Rice Scoop is the symbol of Miyajima Island. It's called Oshakushi. You will not miss this giant if you are walking around Omotesando.

Omotesando is a street connecting the ferry pier to the beautiful Red Otorii and other shrines in the island. There's already so much to do and EAT before you reach the shrine. Kakakakaka. Thankfully we were staying in this island for 2 nights, so we have plenty of time and room to explore, especially when the ferry and the tourists are gone~~~~ as most tourists come here for a day trip.


a stick of nigiri ten. I don't know why they called this nigiri apart from it's made from fish paste. So there's a selection of Bacon, Shrimp, Octopus, Oyster, Green onion, edamame, lotus roots and so many others. The fish paste is mixed with only a single ingredients from the one I've listed, steamed, and finally deep fried to golden perfection. Finally some sprinkle of Japanese spices known as Togarashi and NOM NOM NOM your heart out. The above pic was a edamame nigiri ten


Bcoz it was so so yummy, we had to choose another stick to share...and now Bacon!!!! It's fried on the spot for you, so very careful when u indulge them. So so so very yummy esp with a bottle of Miyajima Beer. Yes they brewed their own beer here in this island.

These was just only our appetizer....JS's palate was already tantalized and was so eppy coz Monkey is bringing him for a food tasting gourmet trail along Omotesando. Errrr boss, it's only street food OK so don't mind that we have to stand to eat...or eat as we walk :P


Next was the fragrant deep fried Croquette of Oysters. Miyajima is well known for its huge, fleshy, plump beautiful oysters. So you gotta eat them here, by the truckloads.


The croquette was so crispy and crunchy that I could hear it Krok-Krok-Krok in my skull!!! The potato filling was velvety smooth and creamie and really really rich bcoz they've added butter and cheese. Finally the surprise center of a plump single piece of oyster. Yummmmeeeee~~~



Moving on to another stall there's a lot of teppan-oysters. Cooked on the hot plate. Then u get to choose the sauce of your choice.


Everything was in Japanese and English is really pretty limited on this island....since we couldn't READ nor SPEAK...we just close our eyes.....circled the menu with our fingers and POINT!! Okie there.....this one. Our blind selection happened to be teppan oysters with red miso sauce toppings.

JS was like eeeyerr wat is this...
Monkey -_-"
since both of us chose it, we gotta eat it.


The Red Miso was really salty or the lady was too generous bcoz JS looked like Ken Watanabe :P pppfffttttttt. So in the end we pushed the red miso aside and enjoyed the teppan oysters...So yummy so fat and juicy :)))))))))

Moving onto our main course....
YES MORE OYSTERS :)))))))))))))))))

Again these grilled oysters were made to order. Hence u gotta wait for a bit and have patience. The beautiful smell of grilled oysters can really test our patience....ARGHHH!!! gimme gimme gimme~~~

How can oysters be this beautiful and perfect???? like Porcelain??? Do u all happened to use SK-II??? I guess it's the Japanese diet - seaweed. Oysters consume seaweed don't they? Actually they feed on planktons. Maybe I should just open my mouth and go for a dive, finally feed myself with all the japanese planktons in the Sea of Japan. And I will end up looking pretty with porcelain skin. :))))

There are a few condiments for you to enjoy your oysters with....the sticks are not meant to be eaten but as a tool for u to pick ur grilled oysters, some Japanese soyu/ponzu thingy, lime juice and a small canister of Togarashi/japanese spices.

a lil bit of these and a lil bit of that....then NOM NGAUM NGAUM NGAUM NOM~~~~~~
they were huge, can't gulp them down in a bit...more like a few bites. The oysters were so so creamie....and FAT.


It was so good we ordered more~~~~
And so that was our main course :D


There's also Fried Oysters. This isn't the same as the croquette. Croquette is richer with potato, butter and cheese. While this Fried Oysters were just oysters with crispy bread crumbs and fried to golden pops like these. Drizzle with some japanese sweet sauce but not too much and MUNCH ur heart out. I lost counts of how many oysters we downed :P

Miyajima is also famous for Anago - Sea Eel. The other must try is their Sea Eel rice. But we were not really fans of Anago and Unagi. I had trauma since young bcoz my grandma used to force feed me with Anago/Unagi/Snakes watever and other weird reptiles.....I don't think she's trying to make Foie Gras outta me :P

Next after our main course is CARBS. Seen here is the famous Pau shop run by 2 ladies. You can choose the famous Japanese Beef Pau or the Sea Eel Pau.

We chose the beef pau and the fillings were so succulent with some type of vegetables inside. The beef has got a good mixture of fats and meat. The bun was so soft and fluffy....becareful while consuming this bcoz it's pipping hot!!!


After our appetizers, first course, main course and carbs, We are finally moving onto deserts. The gal who sold me this was kinda cute :)))) Japanese gals are all so kawaii~~~~


This is the famous Momiji - but fried version.
Momiji is made from castella dough with fillings of Red Beans paste, ice creams, cheese, chestnut paste, maccha etc.

Most tourists here purchase the non-fried original traditional Momiji as souvenirs.


It doesn't look appetizing don't they? Somehow it reminded me of our Msian version of deep fried sticky glutinous cake with yam/sweet potato.


WAHHHHH it was sooo goooooood~~~~
we chose the custard type of Momiji.....again it's made to fried and we should have ordered more!!!! At this juncture JS waved his white flags and said no more food...he can't eat no more.


But Monkey was still buying food.
U see this Omotesando street is lined with shops and eateries left and right...as u walk u can't help it but trying all the food and buying everything that they have.


wat's these???
my favourite rice crackers :))) and it's alwiz served WARM...how nice :)))


My favourite was this one loaded with a lot of japanese spices

While JS prefers this one wrapped in crispy fresh Japanese seaweed.
AAAhhhhh I wondered who said he didn't want anymore food...hmmm...

After all the food, one must burn all the calories..so that we can put in more..hahaha. I was so intrigued by these wild deers kissing each other...how romantic :))))

JS, we must grow old like this yea :)))))))) though we lurve to bully each other...kekekeke.....I wondered who bullied who these days :P

Hello single loner deer...u want a kiss? But u r so smellie~~~~ yikes

In Miyajima one is forbidden to feed these deers. They have been roaming around this islands for so many hundreds of years so it's best to keep them wild. However sometimes when they are hungry, they'll hunt down ur backpacks and plastic bags. So do keep your belongings close to you and throw the rubbish into the bins.

Aaaaaaaaa such a beautiful place. I would really love to come here again :))))

As though that I wasn't being fed enuff, I was hungry for more food...hahahaha There's so many rice scoop here in Miyajima including in the Ryokan that we were staying in....The one that I was holding was actually the key to our cottage :P

If you are interested in visiting this island, find out more details below:
http://visit-miyajima-japan.com/en/