Hiroshima

We left Koyasan, grabbed the bus, furnicular and express back to Osaka. As we waited for our first group Shinkansen we had time to buy some food for the 2ish hour journey to Hiroshima. For us, it was the self heating bento box. Yes, pull the string, wait 5mins and voila, hot food on the train.

G Adventures went and booked us in at the Via Inn Hotel a mere 200m from Hiroshima train station. The itinerary had us staying here for two night, which was great as it was one of the better hotels we stayed in. Even though the food options on offer were almost non-existent, there was a hotel Onsen, which after the Onsen in Koyasan, we were very appreciative of.

We didn't stay long enough after checking in to enjoy the amenities, and not long after jumped onto a tram heading to Genbaku Dome-Mae Station in the centre of Hiroshima, but more importantly just north of our first tourist stop, the Atomic Bomb Dome.

After the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima by US forces on 6th August 1945, the A-Bomb Dome was the only building that was left standing after the bomb detonated 600m vertically and 150m horizontally from the dome.

We walked around the A-Bomb dome and were pleasantly surprised to see a choir in progress on the far side of the Motoyasu River.

We walked around, took some photos and listened to our guide Kumiko provide us with all the background and information the complex, named the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.

We walked south past the Flame of peace, alongside the Pond of Peace and then stopped at the Victim Memorial Cenotaph. The cenotaph aligns perfectly with the flame of peace and the A-Bomb dome at the back.

After a regroup, we were given tickets for the museum and went inside. I took a few photos in the lobby, but none in the museum itself. It's not that kind of place. The lobby had the Peace Watch exhibit in one of the corners. The watch has two counters that counts the number of days since the dropping of the first atomic bomb, and also counts the number of days since the last nuclear test. A depressing 617 days on the day we visited.

Though I didn't take any photos within the museum, there was a spot on the second floor, looking towards the cenotaph and A-bomb dome that I couldn't resist.

Ending our Peace Memorial Park walk, as we walked out of the area, we stopped at the Children's Peace Monument at the north end of the island. There were a number of large glass containers with thousands of paper origami cranes, so having made a selection last night at our origami folding class in Koyasan, we added our creations to rest.

In the evening, Kimiko kidnapped us back to the city centre and brought us to a building filled with a certain type of cuisine - okonomiyaki. It reminded me of a more casual teppanyaki, with a large hot plate taking centre stage with all restaurant customers sat around the plate with a small buffer between them and the plate. The dish itself is a slow cooked pancake made with many many layers of everything including cabbage, egg, meat pickles, ginger etc. Its definitely a belly filler. I chose the largest option and was far from being able to consume it all.

After dinner we decided, now that we'd had the taste of sake, to taste some more, so we stopped into the Flat Sake Bar for a paddle of sake and burned cheesecake (intentionally burned) of course.

With plenty of sake in our bellies, 'team sake' decided we would walk the 30mins in the warm Japanese evening, back to the hotel, quick use of the Onsen and then to bed ready for a long day on Miyajima Island.