Hiroshima

Today we were welcomed to Hiroshima. We were able to disembark the ship promptly at 9:00 AM. Information booths in the port terminal offered helpful information about various ferries to Miyajima Island and tram lines into the city center. I gathered some information, and then, under a glorious sun, we walked along the harbor to the dock for our speedboat. There, we bought two tickets and sat outside in the sunshine. The boat arrived right on time, and in about 30 minutes, we were already on Miyajima.

There are wild deer roaming freely on the island. They live there and are simply part of the landscape. One deer had a paper bag in its mouth and was chewing on it. Hmmm, I thought to myself, that can't be healthy for the poor thing to be swallowing all that paper rubbish. So I offered the deer half a waffle in exchange. Lo and behold, the animal was easily bribed. It got the waffle, and I got the half-eaten bag.

We then set off towards Itsukushima Shrine with its O-torii gate. That's "THE RED GATE," which stands in the water and makes for a cool photo opportunity. The weather was fantastic, and we were able to take some really great pictures. But I also kept seeing deer trying to eat things belonging to the tourists; it was really crazy.

Well then, we naturally took our time looking around again and I did a little shopping (souvenirs ;-) )!

Around midday, we took another ferry back to Hiroshima. Since we arrived at a different dock this time, we had to take the train for quite a while. An older couple had trouble boarding the train and hadn't understood a word a local was saying to them. I felt sorry for them, so I called out to them in German. They came over and asked where we were going. It turned out they were also passengers from the ship and they wanted to go to the Peace Memorial Park as well. I showed him the route on Google Maps. He then asked if they could follow us. Of course, I said. He asked me lots of questions after that, and I told them about eSIMs, etc. I felt so sorry for them. When we got off the train, they asked me one last question, which I did, of course. They were so happy and grateful. I had a smile on my face :-).

We then visited everything in the Peace Memorial Park. The atmosphere in the museum was so oppressive, and it was completely silent. I even had tears in my eyes. I got goosebumps all over. It was awful; all one can do is hope and pray that something so terrible never happens again.

Since we needed to let the impressions sink in, we didn't want to take the train back to the pier, so we walked back for almost 1.5 hours. That felt good.

Arriving at the ship, I couldn't believe my eyes. What was this? A line of people... Why? Because we're leaving Japan this evening and heading towards Busan, South Korea. So all the passengers had to officially leave Japan. Well, that certainly took a while.

Completely exhausted, we went straight to eat, and I promptly lost my boarding pass, probably due to weakness :-)...! Luckily, an honest finder turned it in, and I have it back in front of me.

So, tomorrow is a sea day!

We're arriving in South Korea the day after tomorrow, I'm really looking forward to it... So, all aboard!

Best regards