In this third part of our Japan tour, Southwest Honshu immerses us in samurai, senslessness, spirituality – and sake.
We’ve previously travelled from Tokyo across Honshu to Kanazawa, Shirakawa-go and Kaga Onsen, before heading south to Osaka, Kyoto and Nara. In this article we take you to the far southwest of Honshu to Hiroshima and Miyajima, via Himeji, as you can trace on the map below.
We’ve chosen to make our way by road to Himeji, en route to Hiroshima, as the majestic Himeji Castle with its gardens is one of the most important sites in Japanese fortified architecture.
Stopping en route at a ‘service station’ we are introduced to fast food, Japanese-style. A couple of placards indicate menu choices and prices. A vending machine takes payment for your selection and by the time you’ve walked to the nearby counter your delicious freshly-prepared meal is ready for collection – brilliant!
Himeji is regarded as the finest surviving example of typical early seventeenth century Japanese castle architecture, totalling a network of 83 rooms with advanced defensive systems dating from the feudal period. Its remarkable condition is testament to its original build and the lack of intervention over successive wars, including widespread bombing in WW2.
The castle and grounds take us a couple of hours to walk around – and will, even if you don’t venture into the main Keep, or ‘White Heron’ as it is known because of its brilliant white facades.
The standard of preservation and detail impresses us at every turn and the views of the surrounding hinterland underline its historic strategic importance to the area.
Koko-en gardens, adjacent to the castle, consist of nine separate, walled gardens designed in various differing styles of the Edo Period, including the lord’s residence which features a pond and waterfall. We view the tea garden from outside but choose not to wait twenty minutes for our own tea ceremony. A pine tree garden (where trees are trained in the same way as Bonsai), bamboo garden and flower garden provide beautifully manicured vistas as we stroll the pathways of the huge area, stumbling across a costumed ‘Samurai’ warrior as we return to the car park and leave for Hiroshima!
Hiroshima
Every time we visit a location or memorial that’s testament to Man’s inhumanity to Man we’re left chilled, stunned, melancholy, disillusioned and disappointed by Man’s inability to learn from history. The visitors to these locations, unfortunately for the most part, are not those who make the decisions to obliterate hundreds of thousands of civilians; so repetition throughout history appears to be inevitable.
Its an appropriately grey, wet and dismally depressing day as we stroll around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park. The Genbaku Dome was the only structure left standing in the area where the first atomic bomb exploded on 6 August 1945.
It stands as a chilling icon at one end of the park that leads to the peace flame and thereafter to the cenotaph arch (that contains the names of the hundreds of thousands who perished instantly from the blast or subsequently from the effects of irradiation. The avenue culminates in the museum that isn’t for the faint hearted. Photographs and possessions chart the effects of the bomb, whilst a stone slab preserves for eternity the scorched shadow of a hapless victim.
A particularly poignant memorial is that of the Childrens Peace Monument, dedicated initially to Sadako Sasaki, a young girl of two when the bomb dropped.
She later contracted lukemia from the effects of irradiation but believed the folklore tale that anyone who folded one thousand origami cranes would have a wish granted – sadly hers, for life, wasn’t and she passed away at 12yrs old.
This story has passed around the world and the folded paper crane is a symbol of peace for children globaly.
We encounter hundreds of thousands of paper cranes at many shrines throughout our tour of Japan
– a splash of colour, vitality and hope.
Miyajima
Having had our fill of castles and conflict, we head by ferry across Hiroshima Bay to Miyajima Island, also known as Itsukushima after the Shinto Shrine of the same name.
The most notable feature of the shrine is the massive red Torii Gate that stands partially submerged at high tide and acts as both a landmark and gateway to the shrine.
A short walk along the waterfront, through streets of ancient wooden shops and houses, brings us to the entrance of the shrine.
A sprawling wooden ‘floating’ platform appears to house not only the spiritual centre of the shrine but its prayer rooms – and rows of sake barrels.
These empty barrels are known as kazaridaru, or ‘decoration barrels’ and are symbols of the connection between the gods and the Japanese people.
Local brewers provide sake throughout the year for ceremonies and major festivals but it can also be found in copious quantities throughout the island at stalls, bars and restaurants. We’re amazed by how many different varieties and ‘brews’ there are – just too difficult to pass them all by untried!
The town itself is an interesting maze of narrow streets, wooden houses and neat alleyways – well worth the hour’s stroll it’ll take you to find your way back to the ferry terminal.
Much of our tour of Honshu during April/May has been affected by rain, which although not ideal, has added an atmosphere and presence that bright sunlight, however welcoming, could have spoilt.
The rolling mists and cloud have created a memorable experience for us in southwestern Honshu but we’re ready for sunshine as we head off on the last leg of our journey to Tokyo and its environs.
Read the fourth and final part of our journey through Honshu shortly.
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