{"id":1388,"date":"2016-06-13T00:18:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-13T00:18:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/?page_id=1388"},"modified":"2016-06-13T00:27:17","modified_gmt":"2016-06-13T00:27:17","slug":"japan-hiroshima-monuments-to-peace-a-bomb-domes-cherry-blossoms-bats","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/?page_id=1388","title":{"rendered":"Japan: Hiroshima – monuments to peace, A-bomb dome, cherry blossoms & bats"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"tulips<\/p>\n

Hiroshima is a place I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’ve been thinking of how I might write about it – war & peace, just war, just peace – a good place for oysters, the place we saw a nice Shibu Inu dog. It’s not an easily defined place , so in the end, I’ve just started at the beginning. Though it will depending on where you start this story, I’ve decided to just call this part one..<\/p>\n

\"children<\/p>\n

I wasn’t sure what I expected to find in Hiroshima,\u00a0or even sure now whether I expected anything to begin with. It was a place on a map, in a guidebook, in the world’s\u00a0collective memory, always linked to\u00a0a single event in a war that’s getting slowly forgotten. I doubt there’s any\u00a0city that\u00a0compares in the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

Pikadon<\/em> is the Japanese term\u00a0used to describe the atomic explosion over Hiroshima at 8.15 am on 6\u00a0August 1945. Pika<\/em> meaning Flash, and don<\/em> Bang. I remember it better than most words, mainly because of Pikachu, the Pokemon, with its lightning flash tale.<\/p>\n

\"man<\/p>\n

We arrived in Hiroshima in the early evening after a long shinkansen journey from Tokyo, which of course went sanic hedgehog fast. There was my mother, myself and my two children, like the same number of the Beatles if that’s easier to remember (I’d be John if that was the case, because my name is literally John). I wanted the kids to see the world wasn’t always a nice place. That it needs protecting from evil from time to time.<\/p>\n

But this\u00a0evening it\u00a0was not the horror of war that confronted us, but peace. Peace surrounded us. Not a tokenistic peace, but a deep, heartfelt and resonating peace, woven into the very fabric of this amazing little city.<\/p>\n

\"hiroshima<\/p>\n

We strolled, from our dodgy, smoky ryokan –\u00a0<\/em>the traditional Japanese inn where the walls were yellowy, brown from years of cigarette smoke – along the river promenade of\u00a0the Peace Memorial Park, passing haunting statues along the way of children, families, \u00a0gas company employees. Everyday folk who are likely to have\u00a0been completely overlooked by history had they not been living here in 1945.<\/p>\n

\"cherry<\/p>\n

The last of the cherry blossoms were still blooming\u00a0on the banks of the river, the pretty pink petals covering\u00a0the ground around the promenade, and the fresh green leaves poking out from the branches. It looked to be low tide. I’ve never liked low tide much, high tide seeming so much more alive. I couldn’t see any signs of fish in the water, but cranes were about so I guess there must be smart ones staying out of sight.<\/p>\n

\"cherry<\/p>\n

A lone pigeon pecked around the blossoms for a while, with sparrows chirping about behind it. You can watch it on my YouTube channel: Pigeon in cherry blossoms, Hiroshima<\/a><\/p>\n

\"piegeon<\/p>\n

\"cherry<\/p>\n

\"abomb<\/p>\n

We just walked, chatting as we had done the whole trip to Japan, enjoying the spring air,\u00a0until we stood, across from\u00a0the A-bomb dome, over which the single bomb exploded. It looks like a skeleton, some famous ruin, I can’t capture now what I felt there, but I was quiet. We just watched and chatted along with a few other tourists when we noticed the bats emerging from the dome, flying around collecting bugs, I guess, as the sun went down. You can see my son’s video of it on my YouTube channel: Bats @ Hiroshima A-bomb dome<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I’m hungry”, my daughter said, “can we get some oysters?”<\/p>\n

I\u00a0took one last look at the dome, and the bats.<\/p>\n

“Sure”.<\/p>\n

The sun had gone down and at the oyster restaurant, on the banks of the river, where they served the hugest oysters I’d ever seen in the world, I saw these crates of oranges. That was my first ever evening in Hiroshima. It’ll never leave me.<\/p>\n

\"crates<\/p>\n

greenpaddocks@gmail.com<\/p>\n

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Hiroshima is a place I’ll remember for the rest of my life. I’ve been thinking of how I might write about it – war & peace, just war, just peace – a good place for oysters, the place we saw a nice Shibu Inu dog. It’s not an easily defined place , so in the … Continue reading Japan: Hiroshima – monuments to peace, A-bomb dome, cherry blossoms & bats<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1388","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1388","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1388"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1411,"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1388\/revisions\/1411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juanitos-travels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}