We woke up early to get a walk in before our afternoon train back to Hiroshima and walked back up to Hokanji Temple to have breakfast in a little cafe with a view of the temple.
After breakfast we walked to Maruyama park to see some cherry blossoms. A few of the trees had bloomed and the park was rather peaceful so early in the morning. There were vendor stalls set up lining the walkways ready for the cherry blossom festival but they weren’t open yet which made the morning walk even more quite and nice. After walking around a bit we happened upon another rather large shrine, Yasaka Shrine.
After that we walked around the neighborhood some more and stopped in to a few stops before walking back to our hotel to catch a taxi to the train station. Then we hopped on another bullet train back to Hiroshima!
Once we got back to Hiroshima and checked in to our hotel, we walked to the Mazda Zoom-Zoom baseball stadium, home of the Hiroshima Carps in hopes that we would be able to get tickets for today or tomorrow’s game seeing as we were unable to buy them in advanced. Even two hours before the game there were so many people on the streets headed for the stadium. When we got there we found out that both games had already been sold out but it was definitely cool to get to walk to the stadium among the crowds. The fans here in Hiroshima really go all out for their team!
We instead went to the Shukkeien garden. First built starting in the Edo period and later being a villa for the emperor, the gardens were always open to the public. The garden was very close to ground zero of the atomic bomb and so suffered extensive damage but also became a refuge for victims. The garden itself was beautiful, with a pond that had an arching bridge across the center. One side of the pond signifying heaven while the other signified earth. In the park there were a lot more cherry trees in bloom which added to the beauty.
After the park we walked back to the hotel for a quick rest and to wait for the sun to go down. Teamlab, a company that made a digital art museum in Tokyo that Joey went to before and loved was putting on a limited time light show at the Hiroshima castle. Once it got dark, we went back out to the castle for the second time in order to see the light show. There were glowing egg shaped orbs of all different sizes and on land and water. You could go up to the eggs and push them around and play with them. In one section they had orbs the sizes of trees all close together so that you could run through them like a giant bouncy house maze. A very interactive art experience. They also lit up the cherry blossoms and the castle with colored lights. And in the background the whole time was quite, peaceful, simple music to set the tone of the experience. An interesting event in itself but also a really unique way to experience the castle.
After the art exhibit, we went to grab some late night ramen and turn in after almost 11 hours of sight seeing and traveling that day.