A sobering reminder of what nuclear weapons can do and reminder why we fight hard to keep evil empires from using them .  The Museum is well organized,  to see Hiroshima before,  during and after the bomb,  including the life of inhabitants  Dealing with the medical issues and the aftermath for many years.  No photos inside,  so our post is only from the outside

There were just a few buildings constructed of more stable materials that survived the blast.   This domed building did and was left standing as a memorial,  and framed by the peace memorial.  There is an eternal flame burning and a children’s memorial as well.   It has booths filled with origami cranes made by school children to decorate the area.

We traveled again by train slot 30 minutes to get the ferry to Miyajima island and the large floating Torii gate in the bay at the

Itsukushima Jinja
嚴島神社.  it was high tide when we arrived

from the Shine itself

Stunning from any angle

There is also a Buddhist temple there, 

Daishoin
大聖院. 

it is known for little statues that have knitted hats!

It also has a cave with 88 little alters, 1 to each of the temples on a pilgrimage route they are supposed to do once in their lives.   if you go to this 1 temple and stop at each alter,  you get credit for the whole pilgrimage!  Sounds like the easy way to me!  They are in a hall of lights.

We walked just a bit further to a small pagoda, with great view.  

We stopped for lunch to try the local delicacy,  salt water eel and grilled oysters and their small,  maple leaf shaped sweets called momiji manju

By the time we left,  the tide was half way out again so the torii gate looked even larger