Deer nibble crotches

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Faster than a speeding bullet? We waved farewell to the monks and headed south to Hiroshima to visit the shrines and memorials. It was solemn and sad but also fascinating and particularly shocking to learn about the number of nuclear weapons still held by countries today, and the various accidents involving them (America, unsurprisingly, the most guilty).

Miyajima Island just off Hiroshima’s coast has hundreds of wild deer who eat tourists’ train tickets and maps so we ran them over on our bikes.

Back in Tokyo and craving a bit of Japanese kitsch culture, we visited the Sunshine City and the Namja Town amusement park where we spent hundreds of Yen riding on pigs while shooting at mosquitoes with laser guns and winning funny-looking cuddly toys on grabber machines which we now have to carry around the rest of the world.

As a prelude to Bristol Rovers’ promotion, we spent Saturday afternoon at the Ajinomoto Stadium watching Grampus Eight beat FC Tokyo and joined the fans for a rousing rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Despite having the mighty Paulo Wanchope up front, even Intergalactic would stand a chance of beating FC Tokyo.

We then finally forked out for a trip on the Shinkansen (bullet train). Click on the video to decide for yourself whether it’s faster than a speeding bullet. Jo was so impressed she wants a new career driving them around London.

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