Hiroshima: Day 2

This is very similar to the
Toulouse-Lautrec piece in
the Gallery. 

The Hiroshima Museum of Art: 

After a breakfast at Molly Malone's and a coffee at Starbucks, it was a morning of checking out local shops in the main Hiroshima shopping district.

After checking out some stores I went on the Hiroshima Museum of Art. They had pieces from Toulouse-Lautrec, Chagall, Gaugin, Manet, Monet, Picasso and many more. I have never been to an art gallery showing impressionist art before, and I never thought I would see it in Hiroshima Japan. There were some beautiful pieces there.

Hiroshima Castle:

Next I walked over to the Hiroshima Castle. It is definitely worth the very reasonable price of admission. There is a lot of information on the history of Hiroshima and on the castle itself. The original castle was built back in the early 17th century. The completion was delayed by restrictions from the new Tokugawa Shogunate that stipulated Daimyo's needed approval from the Shogunate before building any castles. It was burned down at least once and was subsequently destroyed in 1945 by the H-Bomb. I managed to snap a couple of nice pictures.

The Peace Park:


The Peace Park is both beautiful and serene. It is a park meant to commemorate the bombing of Hiroshima. You can also find the Atomic Bomb Museum here. I chose to forgo it because I wasn't in the mood for horribly depressing reminders or man's inhumanity to man. I did see the only building to survive the blast though. It was kind of eerie in a way.

The only building in downtown Hiroshima to survive the
bombing. 

Below is the children's memorial. It is meant to remind us of the children who were killed in war. As I get older, these sorts of memorials tend to have much more of an effect on me. I won't get too maudlin on the blog, but suffice it to say the memorial is thought-provoking...as it's meant to me.