Hiroshima – 5-Star Hotel in the Shadow of Death

Diary of a Traveling VBD - The Japan Files
Day 2: Hiroshima

We got into Hiroshima last night via bullet train, a very fast ride that I mainly slept through. Sleepily wandering into the hotel lobby, I was stunned to see that I would be staying in a virtual palace. My service with ISKCON Commnications has allowed me to stay in various grades of hotels from time to time. But this is perhaps the nicest hotel I've stayed in. The hotel boasts everything from a gym and salon to an indoor mall and wedding banquet halls. As I took it all in, I started wishing for some time to relax at the hotel -- although looking at the conference schedule, that doesn't seem very likely. Anyway, at least I could enjoy the gorgeous view from my 22nd Floor room:

Hiroshima seems to be a beautiful city.... with greenery, modern buildings, and traditional Japanese structures all co-existing. Its too eay to forget that 61 years ago, the United States dropped the world's first atomic bomb on this same spot, decimating every building to ashes, killing and injuring thousands and thousands. Somehow, the Japanese people were able to recover and rebuild this city. It is amazing enough that a single tree or blade of grass was able to grow here -- let alone the whole parks full of lush vegetation that now marks the spot where the A-Bomb was dropped.

Taking a short walk from the hotel, I found myself face to face with an odd looking structure that resembled the skleleton of a domed building. I soon learned that this structure is the A-Bomb Memorial, a building that miraculosuly survived the blast.

It was hard not to let my mind drift to the irony that here I was staying in a hotel designed to gratify every one of my senses to no end, and yet was only steps away from an undeniable testament to the destruction and misery that is possible in this world. Luxuries pamper us and help us to forget the reality of this material world: that it is a place of birth, old age, disease, and ultimately death. Does saying that make me pessimistic? Maybe. Its hard not to be pessimistic when you realize you are standing on land that was the scene of indescribable violence only 6 decades ago. Or maybe its just being realistic... looking beneath the surface of the hotel with all its artficial niceties, and confronting the scary things we don't want to talk about.

Its humbling, and sobering. But I will probably forget it soon enough, distracted by whatever else comes my way. The acaryas describe this tendency as "funeral renunciation" -- the tendency to become very serious about one's spiritual life at the funeral, but then to get covered over again. For now, though, I'm trying to keep focused.

Hare Krishna.