From sadness and sorrow to joy and beauty

That was the range of my day today. Kind of expecting it but did not think I would actually have tears in my eyes.
I first wandered around the Peace Memorial Park preparing myself to go into the actual museum. Got an audio guide which proved to be very emotional and informative. The bombing completely leveled the city and even though it was war and they were expecting air raids, no one was expecting something this big. The pictures and stories were simply horrifying. I think the one that made the most impression on me was some life size wax representations of what it looked like a few minutes after the blast. A woman and two children with their skin hanging from their bodies like melted plastic…
At the exit my mood swung when a group of Japanese students started to say hello in English and were very happy when I asked to take their picture. The sun came out – that helped a lot as well.

For the second half of my day I went to Miyajima. I was actually not expecting much from this island full of shrines close to Hiroshima (1 hour by tram + 10 minutes on a ferry). Right off the ferry I was greeted by some deer! They roam around freely in the island and in the city! The natural beauty of the place was stunning. The cable car that usually takes people up to the top of this 500m high island was out of service so I walked up one of the climbing paths (2km) and was rewarded at the end by a beautiful view and a very good energy along the entire way. Beautiful town, very traditional and some impressive shrines and temples.


Tomorrow I head to Kyoto then back to Tokyo. Next week I still have to decide where to go.