Hiroshima Castle, Shukkeien Garden, and an Incident – Joel’s Journeys & Jaunts

This morning in Hiroshima, I visited Hiroshima Castle and Shukkeien Garden. The latter is a beautiful, peaceful traditional Japanese garden.

By law, traditional Japanese gardens are required to be beautiful and peaceful. Otherwise, they risk incurring enormous fines unless they bribe the arresting officer or judge. It’s usually cheaper to bribe the arresting officer rather than the judge because convincing them to ignore the offence avoids the need to incur court costs.

It goes without saying that all of the preceding paragraph is balderdash, as far as I know.

I’ll discuss my visits to Hiroshima Castle and Shukkeien Garden below, but first…

Aside

The Joy of Credit Cards

I got a bit of a late start today. I can’t blame sleeping in because I didn’t sleep in.

This morning, I received a text from my primary credit card company. It came from one of those non-phone numbers that companies sometimes use.

It was indeed from my credit card company, not a scam.

The message provided the name of my credit card company and the last four digits of my card number. It then went on to say that they received a charge that looked suspicious and gave me the vendor’s name and the amount. The message asked me to reply “Y” or “N” if I made the charge.

I recognized neither the vendor’s name nor the amount. And, if the alert was sent out as soon as the charge was incurred, it couldn’t have been something I bought while still in my hotel room, about to go for breakfast.

I replied “N.”

Apple Messages told me the reply couldn’t be sent. I tried again and got the same response. This has happened to me before on the exceptionally rare occasions when I had to respond to a message from that sort of number from outside of Canada.

I looked at my credit card transactions online. That charge was listed under pending transactions. I recognized all of the other charges on my card, but not that one.

I called my credit card company. After he confirmed my identity, he asked me if I made the charge. I told him I didn’t recognize it. He then read a list of names of other companies and asked me if I recognized them as payments I’d made. He wouldn’t tell me the amounts. I didn’t recognize the names, and none of them had yet appeared on my account online. (Considering I’m in Japan, I might not recognize names if they were in Japanese when I incurred the charge, but most have been recognizable.)

He told me they’d have to cancel my card and send me a new one. I’d already told him I’m in Japan and when I’d be getting back. They wouldn’t send me an emergency replacement card in Japan.

I explained that I use that card almost exclusively here. My remaining hotel reservations were held on that card. The hotels, including the one I’m at now in Hiroshima, are expecting to charge that card. He told me that I could have the bank keep the card open, but if I didn’t cancel it, I’d be responsible for, and have to pay, any fraudulent charges from that point on. I cancelled the card.

The credit card company is issuing me a rebate for the suspicious charges. They’ll start an investigation. If the charges are found not to be fraudulent, I’ll have to repay the rebate. Fair enough.

Fortunately, I have a cellphone plan that allows me to “roam beyond.” It used to be 90 countries, but now, in 120 countries, I can make local calls and calls to Canada, and receive calls from anywhere, all included in my monthly plan, which doesn’t cost much more than my previous plan. Japan is one of those countries. So, at least the call didn’t cost me anything.

Fortunately, too, I have two other credit cards with me (although they’re less advantageous), and two different debit cards. So it’s not catastrophic. Still …

I don’t know if non-neurotic people are aware of this, but for someone who is somewhat neurotic, or at least for me, knowing that your angst is unwarranted doesn’t negate it. I might rationally know that a particular worry is irrational, but irrationality wins every time when it comes to my worrying. And, surprisingly for me, I’ve been told that, as excessively anxious as that might seem to a carefree person, I wouldn’t make it into medal contention in the Anxiety Olympics.

Nevertheless, I can’t begin to tell you how much anxiety this kind of incident instills in me. Well, I could begin to tell you, but if I gave my angst anywhere close to its full due, this aside alone would turn into the longest entry in this journal. By far.

You don’t need that. In fact, I don’t imagine that any of this aside interests you at all, nor should it. But I had to give voice to the incident for the benefit of my mental health. Suffice it to say, I hyperventilated on the phone with the credit card company, and anxiety plagued me all morning. 

Hiroshima Castle

Hiroshima Castle bears the nickname, the Carp Castle. My walking tour app obliquely mentions the nickname solely by titling its entry on the castle as ‘Hiroshima “Carp” Castle.’

A brochure available at the castle explains the origin of the nickname. Hiroshima Castle was built in an area that was then called, in the English transliteration, Koi-no-ura, which translates to “Koi Sea Shore.” Koi is the Japanese word for carp. Hence, Carp Castle.

Damn. I was hoping Hiroshima Castle was dedicated to an all-seeing, all-knowing piscatorial carp deity that swims in judgment of all corporeal fish and other sea creatures. It condemns all unrepentant sinners to become sushi. That would have been a much more riveting story about the carp nickname. But, no. They had to go with a boring story.

Hiroshima Castle was completed late in the 16th century. It was continuously occupied by a succession of lords from 1591 to 1869. The brochure mentions nothing about any destruction and reconstruction at any time or times during that period.

I’m not certain, but I think the original castle stood until August 6th, 1945. The castle is close to ground zero in Hiroshima. The atomic blast destroyed it. The castle that stands today is a recreation.

The grounds around the castle are very attractive. A moat surrounds it, and there are lots of trees in the grounds. Many of the trees have turned colour, but still retain their leaves, now in the second half of November.

Inside the castle, a small museum occupies the first through fourth floors. The topics covered include ancient Hiroshima, or, at least, the area that’s now Hiroshima, including the time before people settled here. The exhibits also include presentations on castles in Japan in general, including the different styles of Japanese castles; the construction of the Hiroshima castle; the surrounding castle town and its culture; the history of the castle, including pictures of it before the dropping of the nuclear bomb and after; and a display of swords and armour.

The fifth floor, the top floor, of Hiroshima Castle, is an observation platform. To be honest, I wasn’t terribly impressed with the view. There is a natural and an unnatural reason for that.

The natural reason is that the only time this morning that some serious clouds rolled in, and even a few drops of rain, was when I was out on the observation platform. So, some of the view was shrouded. The unnatural reason is that there are tall buildings just beyond the perimeter of the castle grounds, pretty much all the way around Hiroshima Castle. Not being all that high up, they eclipsed much of the view.

Shukkeien Garden

After the Hiroshima Castle, I walked over to Shukkeien Garden.

A serene, gorgeous Japanese garden is just what the doctor ordered as a palliative for my credit card anxiety. It allowed me to amble through and sit in* the cultivated loveliness while contemplating and stewing about what history books will record as “The Tragic Credit Card Incident of 2025” and meditating on the immense injustice of life. I think I need a better doctor.

*Obviously, I didn’t amble and sit simultaneously. That requires the achievement of a zen state that is only one small level below the state required to levitate. I’m not there yet. I’m still trying to achieve a level that would allow me to be sufficient at one with myself that I’d be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. I’m working on it.

The construction of Shukkeien Garden began in 1620 as a garden of the designer’s villa. It, no doubt, went through some changes since then, as trees and shrubs don’t live forever and need to be replaced from time to time. The most notable change, however, undoubtedly happened on August 6, 1945, when the garden was levelled by the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. At its closest point, Shukkeien is 1.22 kilometres from the hypocentre.

Shukkeien Garden has a large, irregularly shaped pond surrounded by gorgeous greenery of trees and bushes. Small inlets protruded from the pond, and a few small islands with trees dotted it. Stepping stones, a bridge and some stone planks superfluously forded the inlets. Superfluous, because paths made walking around the pond and its inlets possible, without resorting to using those crossings.

Speaking of paths, many of them wend lazily through the garden.

There are also a few small hills with steps up them. The top of the highest of the short hills provides a gorgeous view of the entire garden as it unfolded before me.

I spent a fair amount of time in the garden. Then, my peckishness tried, and succeeded, to convince me that I had already had too much of an otherwise good thing, and it was time to find some lunch.