Tuesday 2nd ~ Hiroshima and Miyajima island

again i wrote nothing in my journal for this day. the rest of the group went through the Muesum in the peace park, but as i said in the blog about last time i had gone there, it is an extremly touching place, and where i was at that point in my life, just being back in the city was enough to bring back very vivid memories of what i had seen inside that building so i made the desision not to go in, thus i had time to my self (a real rare thing on a trip like this) and i just wondered around the peace park and the surrounds cintimplating what it all ment and why it happened, and again that we here in Australia are so lucky to have not suffered like this as many other countries have.
the arch, peace flame and in the distance the A-Bomb dome a statue of a mother, trying the protect her children, and cart them to saftey. sadiko's Memorial, with thousands of paper cranes in the 8 boxes behind it, sadly they can no longer be layed at the base of the memorial for enviromental reasons, but the boxes have heavy plastic sides, which easily enable you to add your own cranes to the collections.
from Hiroshima we then went across to Miyajima island, which i must say instantly became on of my favourite places in Japan, there are many hikes around the island that we could have done, but after the mornings activitives many o the group wernt really in the mood, so we jsut hung around the main area, which is somehting i regreat, but i know i will go back there one day and explore it some more, anyway i will explain with the photos.
the shrine "gate" which floats on the water, its really an amazing site that the photos just dont do it justice. the second photo was taken by one of the other girls on the group who was actually did do the hike up the mountain, i think it would have been way more than worth it. i intend to do so next time i get the chance.
looking back down on the shrine and part of the village from the short walk that we did.
we were lucky enough to be able to witness a wedding at the shrine, i didnt actually go and look, as i had that privlage last time i was in Japan, at Kamakura, but i did take a few shots of the whole wedding group.as you can probebly tell mostof the women were in traditional kimono's while the men wore a more westen suit, which is something i found quiet intresting at both the Japanese weddings i have seen. the other point i want to make here is that the people in the photo was all the people that were at the wedding, which by all the weddings ive seen and been to here, is queit a small group of people, but i am lead to believe that it is quiet often the case in Japan, as when we hosted both Haruka and then Ayana this year and as part of their homework we had to tell them about australian weddings, when we asked about Japanese they couldnt tell us, as they had never been to one and they were shocked that we had been to as many as i have. i relise that many places in japan are pushed for space, yet at both the places that i have seen weddings they could have fitted in alot more people than they did and not have been cutting off access to these places for the genral public. it is definatly somehting i would like to find out more about, as to why they have so few guests.

that night being our last actual night in Japan we again went to dinner as a whole group, to a fairly nice buffe resturant, i was kinda disapointed as it didnt have much traditional food but was more like sizzlers, and i would have prefered to do somethign more culturly enriching on our last night there.