Last day in Hiroshima! And I haven’t done anything yet that Hiroshima (unfortunately) is know for. Today I visited the Memorial Park and Hiroshima Castle.
To start the day of I headed to the Lawson next door to purchase me some breakfast. Then headed straight to the park as it was nearby.
As the name suggest this park is filled with monuments to mourn the lives lost by the atomic bombing. One central for al victims and some groups of people have a dedicated one. So is there one for all Koreans, all children and from a specific school that had children working near the ground zero.
On the other side of the river lies the ‘famous’ Atomic Dome. The last building standing in it’s state after the bomb was dropped. Contrary to what I believed at first this wasn’t the only building left standing. Just one they eventually chose to be preserved as a sign of peace and a call out that such things should never happen again.
The Museum at the front of the park was closed due to earthquake-proofing and renovations, so that was a bummer. But the information center about the victims was open, so I spent some time there watching and listening to reports about this sad time in history.
Lunch today was Yakisoba! Although had I know they gave free rice-refills before I ordered my meal at the machine. I probably would’ve went for a rice dish. This one was good, but nothing special to write about.
After lunch I made my way to some older culture. The Hiroshima Castle. When entering the premises of the castle you pass trough a side building and a temple before entering the castle garden. This castle isn’t as big as the ones I saw before. Inside it told the history of the castle and the many times it was rebuild. Most recently after the A-bomb.
After the castle I made my way to the shopping district visiting the shounen jump store, the Pokémon Center, yellow submarine and the local animate.
Then headed back to the hostel to see some League of Legends on the beamer. Unfortunately Fnatic (Europe) lost really hard to Invictus Gaming (China) in the finals of the world championship.
A bit down from the loss I wanted some comfort found and found that in the form of pasta. It wasn’t the greatest but what can you expect from Y400 pasta? Also ordered some garlic bread to finish off my meal.
A tram ride of 60 minutes later I arrived near the island, only had to take a ferry now towards the island. By now it should be low-tide when I arrived. And it was, this gave me the opportunity to check the Vermillion torii out from up close. Standing near it really makes you feel small.
I looked for a deer-less place to consume my egg-sandwich I bought for lunch. With a nice view at the torii and the accompanying shrine.
After ‘breakfast’ it was time to explore the island some more, I left the touristy shopping town-centre and went on the way to the aquarium and eventually took the Misen Hiking Trail – Omote route to the top of Mt. Misen (535meters). This path is known for the rock formations and the nature on the way. It didn’t take me long to see a group of deer and a resting Grasshopper near a patio. After that it was mostly rock formations and trees and little shrines in the rock formations.
The route was steep with a lot of big steps where throughout the years the centre piece of the stone has withered down. Increasing the height to sometimes nasty highs. This route is 3.2km long to the top of Mt. Misen. On the way I’d also get the opportunity to hike to the top of second mountain first. Mt. Komagabayashi, with it’s 509 meters top it’s only a few meters below Mt. Misen and still worth the sight. As there’s no special observatory there I actually liked it a bit more. Definitely worth those few extra meters on a dead end! Near here I consumed my lunch aka, melonpan. And proceeded my way to Mt. Misen.
Time for dinner! As I am in Hiroshima I thought it would only be logical to try out some Okonomiyaki. Asked my hostel reception for a recommendation and went to Henkutsuya. I took a pork-egg-cheese-mochi Okonomiyaki. And truyh be told, I couldn’t even finish this thing.
Arrived Shin-Kobe I put my luggage in a locker and searched for the entrance to the mountain path. Hidden behind the station. It’s really weird that you can just turn your back to civilization and be surrounded by nature in like a four minute walk? Anyways on the road to the top of the mountain you pass by a number of waterfalls with the biggest one being 42 meters high! In this mountain slope they also build a dam to keep a steady water-supply going. 
I should note that there’s also a ropeway that you can use to go the 450m up the mountain with a stop in the middle as the upper half of the way also hosts a herb garden.
Anyways, arrived in Hiroshima I took the bus to my hostel for the next three nights. there I was greeted by the fellow on the right. Somehow it was already pretty dark at 17:00, I’m not used to that.
So in the dark I went to the shopping district, sought out some weeb stores and a place to eat.