We had a day trip to Hiroshima area from Osaka. Hiroshima is the famous city destroyed by the atomic bomb called “little boy” in WWII and was a symbol of peace ever since.
（the outside of the dome）
Travel time: 90 mins from Osaka station to Hiroshima station via Shinkansen.The train is pretty frequent
Cost: if you decided to go Hiroshima from Osaka or Kyoto area, the JR Kansai-Hiroshima 5 day pass is highly recommended. The return trip from Osaka to Hiroshima is around 18,000 Y for non-reserve seats while the 5-day pass is only 15,700. This means even you won’t stay in Osaka for 5 days, if you decided to visit Hiroshima via Osaka, this pass would be worth to buy.
We left our hotel in the morning around 8am and arrived Hiroshima around 10am. A lot of the travel website suggested there is a round trip bus designed for tourist. However, since we are only interested in the museum and the peace memorial park, we took a local bus from the Hiroshima station.
Taking bus is an interesting experience here. In Hiroshima, your Suica card is not working. So coins need to be prepared in advance. You need to board from the back door, take a small ticket from the yellow machine next to the IC card, sit down and wait for your stop to come. When it gets closer to the park, you need to push the button to tell the driver to stop at the next bus stop. when the bus stops, you then go to the front door and handover to the driver the ticket you got from the yellow machine. The driver then will tell you how much you need to pay.
It cost 180y (AUD 2.1) from Hiroshima station to the park. Google map is our good friend for the bus and bus stop.
We went visit the Atomic Bomb dome, the peace memorial museum and the park for this trip. They are all in the same area.
Atomic Bomb Dome
This was the only building that left after the atomic bomb exploded. This was the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall and was only 160 meters away from the hypocenter. The hypocenter is currently a hospital. All the people in the building was killed instantly but this hall was not destroyed completely.
Take a close look, this place gave me this heavy history feeling. There are a lot of bomb survivor’s family around this dome showing people photos if you are interested.
Walking across the bridge towards the peace memorial museum, it was the children’s peace monument.
This is the memorial to children who died due to the 1945 atomic bombing, and there are thousands of paper cranes stored at the back of this memorial.
In Japanese culture, paper cranes mean hope. If you make 1000 of them, your hope will come true. Those paper cranes made by school kids from different schools who prayed for peace. Schools around the whole Japan still keep sending in new paper cranes nowadays.
We also went Hiroshima National Peace Memorial Hall and museum but we didn’t take any photos because we didn’t feel appropriate to do so. The museum contains all the information about the nuclear power, the history and a lot of survivors’ story. It was a good education and let us feel how important the peace is.
The main building of the museum is currently under construction and will be reopened around 2019. But according to the museum, part of the important material is moved to the current exhibition hall.
– this is part of day two literary –
Other blog related to this trip:
[Japan/Osaka] the beginning of a new trip, hotel and eating Fugu at Zuboraya Dotombori
Tasting The Cloud 
2 thoughts on “[Japan/Hiroshima] Peace and love are the keywords to this nuclear-bombed area”