Day 12: Off to Hiroshima • 広島市
We woke up feeling a little dusty from the night before, which wasn’t helped by an underwhelming hotel breakfast. We packed up (we were getting good at this by this point!) and left for Hiroshima (広島市). On our way into the station, we saw about ten police officers running through the station. We never found out why, but in a country with people who are usually quite reserved, it was weird to see.
Eventually we boarded our Shinkansen and couldn’t get seats directly next to each other, but we managed to snag aisle seats in the same row.
We had quite the adventure on our train ride to the hotel. We shared a tram carriage with a group of Australian travellers who looked like they were ready for a camping expedition with their massive backpacks. When we reached our stop, Tristan tried to tap off with his suica card, but we don’t think it worked properly. He got off anyway, only to realise he had gotten off at the wrong stop. The whole tram watching, including a Japanese old man who laughed out loud.
We finally made it to our hotel, The Knot Hiroshima, which was right outside the tram stop. The hotel was super fancy, with the reception on the top floor and a beautiful restaurant on the bottom floor. We were a bit early for check-in, but they let us in anyway since the room was ready. The check-in process took some time, with the staff explaining the many rules and services, but we were just eager to get to our room.
We were surprised when they asked us if we wanted a room on the top or bottom floor. We obviously chose the top floor, and boy, was it a good choice! Our room was beautiful, and we had a stunning view of the Peace Dome from the 13th floor.
Since we only had one full day in Hiroshima, we decided to visit the Peace Museum that afternoon. The museum was a short walk from our hotel, and the view of the river on our way was beautiful. Along the esplanade there were many plaques and memorials, and we stopped to read a few of them. Many of them were adorned with beautiful paper cranes, a symbol of peace that emerged after the bombings.
After a short walk, we arrived at the museum. It’s part of the Peace Memorial Park, which is a serene area with many memorials and monuments. The museum itself was a sobering experience, with graphic images and stories of the impact of the bomb on Hiroshima and Japan. Around 140,000 people died in the bombing, and the museum did a great job of honouring their memory and educating visitors about the horrors of nuclear warfare.
We also visited the gardens, the Cenotaph, the Children’s Peace Monument, and the Eternal Flame. We didn’t go up to the Peace Dome as it was getting late, but we got a good view from across the river.
On our way back, Sophie had a bit of a tumble and landed hard on her shins. It was painful, but she was okay. Thankfully there was a random orange juice stand nearby, so we got some juice as consolation.
We explored the area around our hotel in search of an HDMI cable so that we could connect our laptop to the TV in our room. Tip for travellers – bring one with you if you know you won’t watch the local TV! We didn’t end up finding a cable, but at least we got some cool pics of Hiroshima at night.
For dinner, we went to the Italian restaurant in our hotel, MORETHAN. Soph opted for a margherita pizza while Tristan bravely tried spaghetti with oysters and bacon. We washed it all down with a limoncello gin and tonic for Soph and a Moscow mule for Tristan. The food was delicious, but the timing was a bit off – the pizza arrived a good 15 minutes before the spaghetti. We also shared a tiramisu for dessert, which was beyond delicious and the perfect way to cap off our meal.
After dinner, we headed to the hotel’s rooftop bar, Kei, where we exchanged our room tokens for drinks and nibbles. It was a smart system – tokens could be exchanged for money and drinks cost a certain amount of tokens, so you didn’t have to worry about finding the right change.
We soaked in the vibes, enjoyed a few more drinks, and then headed back to our room. Tristan indulged in a long bath while Soph promptly fell asleep.
Day 13: Miyajima/Itsukushima • 宮島
The next morning, Tristan was up early to secure our ferry tickets to Miyajima (宮島). We went with Hiroshima World Heritage River Cruise, which is super easy to find as it’s on the river near the Peace Memorial Park. He spoke to a rather intimidating Japanese man at the ticket office who seemed to grow impatient with his indecisiveness about our return time. With hindsight, he was probably just trying to be efficient. Tristan picked a time, bought our tickets, and brought back a coffee from 7-Eleven for Soph (we love a thoughtful king).
We made it to the boat with time to spare, so we sat by the river, enjoying the serenity of the esplanade before our journey. Before long it was time to board, and the 40-minute boat ride was pretty chill.
Once we arrived at Miyajima, we were greeted by the sight of the island’s famous floating torii gate and our first deer sighting. They were everywhere! We were under strict instruction not to feed them, and we soon learnt why – they are super nosy and will almost tackle you to the ground for food.
After seeing the floating gate, we visited the centuries-old Itsukushima Shrine (厳島神社) nearby. A sizeable section of the building was obscured by scaffolding, but the main facade was unobstructed. The tide was high at the time we visited, so the temple appeared to float on top of the water. It was a beautiful sight, especially with the mountains in the background.
We walked around the lower part of the island, taking in the sights and sounds. And by sounds, we mean the sound of deer – they sound like whiny babies when they fight. We visited the Daisho-in Temple at the base of the mountain, and despite being at the base of the mountain, we still had to climb an ungodly amount of steps to get there. Once we got to the top, there were many Japanese people there praying and paying their respects. We didn’t participate as we aren’t spiritual people and didn’t want to inadvertently disrespect the traditions.
After a lunch of hot chips for Sophie and pork on a stick for Tristan, we embarked on a hike to a cable car, or ‘rope car’ as it’s called here, to the Mount Misen (弥山) lookout. It was an incredible view – we could see all of Hiroshima, the ocean, and the surrounding islands.
Our original plan was to just use the cable car to get to the first lookout, but we were too tempted to hike the extra 500 metres to the summit. The climb was easy because, like we said, we’re fit gods…just kidding. It was tough, but we made it. They say couples don’t really know each other until they’ve moved in together, but we would like to add ‘hiking together’ to that phrase. You see a new side to your partner when they’re exhausted and sweaty.
Reaching the summit was a moment of pure triumph for us. We were beyond exhausted, but the breathtaking views made every step worthwhile.
On the walk there, we met a lovely group of Aussies. We bonded over our mutual exhaustion and the relief of hearing an Aussie accent in Japan. They overtook us, but we saw them again at the summit. They were taking selfies on just their phones, so Soph offered to take some pictures of them on her nice camera and airdropped them on the spot. Sony cameras can send photos to phones on the same Wi-Fi, so Soph used that to send the pics to her phone, which she then airdropped to the Aussies. It was a pretty seamless process despite our VPN getting in the way (a running theme on this trip). Thanks, modern technology!
This journey is teaching us so much about ourselves and the world around us. We’re learning to navigate unfamiliar situations, to push ourselves beyond our comfort zones, and to appreciate the beauty of new experiences. We couldn’t help but feel a bit proud of ourselves for embarking on this adventure, and we were grateful that we had each other to share it with.
We decided to head back down the mountain, passing the same group of Aussies we’d met earlier. They jokingly suggested we should follow them around for the rest of their trip, taking photos for them. The descent was tough because our legs were so weak from the hike up, but we were grateful to Isaac Newton and the laws of physics that we didn’t have to go against gravity on the way down too.
We hopped on a packed cable car to head back down. The views were breathtaking. Once we got off, we walked through the park, spotting some deer and koi fish along the way. We grabbed some hot chips and a skewer of pork tongue (which was surprisingly good) before heading back to the floating gate.
We realized it was low tide and we could walk out to the gate. It was a bit muddy, but we managed to get some great photos.
However, when we turned around, we found our path was slightly flooded as the tide was coming back in quickly. Soph braved the water with her shoes on, but Tristan decided to take his shoes and socks off. He quickly regretted his decision when we got back to the path, and he realised there was no grass to walk on, just dirt. We had a boat to catch soon, so he had no choice but to put his muddy feet into his socks and shoes.
Time got away from us, and with our boat departing soon, we had to power walk to the dock to make it in time. Thankfully, we made it with just a few minutes to spare. The Aussies were on the same boat, and we shared a few laughs before everyone settled in for a quiet ride back. There were three couples including us, and all three women fell asleep on their partner’s shoulder for the ride home.
Back at our hotel, we grabbed some snacks from 7-Eleven and relaxed for a bit. We spent some time planning our trip to Yamanouchi the next day, which would take us about 10 hours on various trains (yikes).
As one last hurrah to one of our favourite cities of the trip, we went back to the rooftop bar to use up the rest of our tokens on drinks. It was freezing outside, but we are suckers for an outdoor rooftop dining area, so we drank our drinks on the balcony while wearing a million layers (Aussies love fresh air, ok?).
We chatted about how much we loved Hiroshima and how sad we were to leave. It’s a beautiful city full of history, and we felt that we had barely scratched the surface of what it had to offer. We wished we had planned to stay at least an extra night, but that just means that we have to come back on our next trip to Japan!
Each of us got one last bath in Hiroshima and turned in for the night. We needed a good night’s sleep so that we could maximise our brain power for the day ahead.
