On Tuesday we took the bullet train to Hiroshima and a long subway & ferry ride to Miyajima, an island in the harbor.  It is “The Island of the Gods” and one of the top 3 scenic spots in Japan.  It has one of the World Heritage sites and numerous shrines, temples and monuments.  Miyajima has two cable cars to the top for great views of the Seto Inland Sea but time was too short.  The most famous scene is the giant Torii (shrine gate) that is in the bay.  It is walkable in low tide but provides even greater pictures when surrounded by water.  While there are several temples on the island, Daisho-in, a Buddhist temple on the side of the hill had lots of opportunities for pictures.  The island is beautiful and one of the highlights of our trip to date.

We headed back to Hiroshima for the “Atomic Bomb Dome” – detonation site where a city building survived and the related Peace museum.  The museum has all of the details of the events on 8/6/45, including damaged school kid’s clothing, etc.  It was depressing but one of the many horrors of war.