Japan
Hiroshima
Paper cranes by the million beside a dome that refused to fall.
The dome is the wound that stays open. The Genbaku Dome stands almost exactly as the blast left it on 6 August 1945 β a skeleton of steel and brick a hundred and fifty metres from the point above which the bomb went off. Hiroshima does not hide this. The city rebuilt itself around the ruin and turned destruction into a permanent argument for peace.
At 8.15 that morning the first atomic bomb used in war detonated some 600 metres above the city centre; the former Industrial Promotion Hall was the only structure left standing near the hypocentre, and its preservation was voted in 1966 and confirmed by UNESCO in 1996. The Peace Memorial Museum documents what followed through survivor testimony, personal objects and a minute-by-minute reconstruction, and the Children's Peace Monument nearby is heaped with paper cranes sent from around the world in memory of Sadako Sasaki. The Peace Memorial Park, laid out by KenzΕ Tange on the former commercial district, opens onto a modern river city of wide boulevards, trams and parks, rebuilt with a light the pre-war city never had. Its okonomiyaki β noodles, cabbage and pork layered rather than mixed and pressed on an iron plate β is fiercely defended against the Osaka version.
Solo
The Peace Memorial Museum demands individual processing. Solo visitors can take the time it needs without any pressure to move on.
Couple
The weight of the museum followed by the life of modern Hiroshima β tram rides, river walks, okonomiyaki counters β makes a day of powerful contrasts.
Family
Older children take a great deal from the Peace Museum and the cranes at the Children's Monument. The park is spacious and calm, and the flat, tram-connected city is easy to get around.
- The Genbaku Dome stands almost exactly as it did after 8.15 on 6 August 1945 β a skeleton of steel and brick.
- The Peace Memorial Museum walks visitors through the detonation minute by minute with survivor testimony.
- Okonomiyaki layered with noodles, cabbage and pork is pressed on iron plates at counters across the city.
- Modern Hiroshima is a river city of wide boulevards, tram lines and parks built on the ashes.
Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki β layered, never mixed β noodles, cabbage, egg and pork pressed crisp on the plate.
Hiroshima Bay oysters charred in the shell and dressed with ponzu at the Ekinishi alley bars.
Durham
England
A Norman cathedral and castle perched on a river peninsula like a medieval island.
Uxmal
Mexico
Rain-god masks and Puuc mosaics cover a Maya city shaped in warm limestone.
El Alamein
Egypt
White headstones in rows facing the Mediterranean, the silence of a battlefield that changed a war.
Giza
Egypt
Camel shadows stretch across sand where the last ancient wonder meets the Sahara's edge.
Nikko
Japan
Gold-encrusted shrines hidden in cedar forest where a sleeping cat guards the gate.
Jigokudani Monkey Park
Japan
Snow monkeys soaking in a hot spring while the snow piles up on their heads.
Oki Islands
Japan
Cliff-girt islands of the Japan Sea where exiled emperors and bull sumo survive.
Matsumoto
Japan
A black crow castle mirrored in its moat against a wall of three-thousand-metre Alps.