Hiroshima and Miyajima

For the long New Year holiday, we went on a road trip to Iwakuni, about five hours west of Miki by car. We went with our friends, Atsushi and Yuko, and stayed at Atsushi’s family’s house in Iwakuni. I used to work with Atsushi three years ago in Amagasaki, and I went to his parents’ house for the New Year holiday then as well.

Atomic Bomb Dome (near epicenter)

One of the many peace memorials

Iwakuni is only about an hour west of Hiroshima, so we started our first day at the Hiroshima Peace park. We had hoped to go to the museum also, but we didn’t realize until we were on our way there that the museum was closed for the New Year holiday (we managed to go a few days later). Much of Japan shuts down at some point between December 29 and January 3, so you want to plan accordingly if you visit Japan during your winter vacation. We snapped a few pictures in the peace park, which wasn't terribly interesting when they hadn't been put in context by the explanations in the museum.

From there we went to Miyajima, an island near Hiroshima and home to Itsukushima Shrine, one of Japan’s most visited tourist sites and a UNESCO world heritage site. Miyajima, like Nara in Kansai, is home to many tame deer, which happily eat rice crackers from tourists. Either because of the cold or the holiday, no one was there to sell crackers, so the deer were much more lethargic than the last time I visited the island. There was one exception when a hungry deer decided to try to eat a sample piece of cake sitting in front of a coffee shop. Becky did her best to make sure he didn’t eat too much!