Hiroshima and Miyajima!

Last weekend Emma and I headed down to Hiroshima and Miyajima for a day trip. Hiroshima is famously known as one of the cities on which an atomic bomb was dropped during World War II, and Miyajima (which is a nickname meaning "Shrine Island", the actual island name is Tsukushima) is famous for its "Floating Torii" which is one of the Three Views of Japan.

We started the day at Miyajima, took a lot of pictures of the torii and the shrine, and enjoyed the beautiful weather! The tide was a little low, but it still was very picturesque...

We then headed back to Hiroshima and went to numerous memorials and a museum dedicated to the atomic bombing. The preserved "A-Bomb Dome" is the only building that survived the bombing that was close to the hypnocenter. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park has lots of different memorials in it. We took some time to visit them all, then went to the museum.

I was really impressed with the museum. It did a great job of showing Hiroshima before, during and after the war, it also did a good job of trying to explain why the U.S. chose to drop the bomb. The tone was very neutral, which I respected a lot... It also had exhibits about the dangers of nuclear weapons in general, which was also a good idea...

All in all a fun and reflective day. Check out the pics here.