Heading to Hiroshima

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Its a bit like planes, trains and automobiles today as we have to make our way from Kyoto to Hiroshima which involves a few trains, one bullet train and finally a street tram. We get up early so we can sit down and have a proper breakfast before we leave, as we know we won't have much time in between trains and travelling. We find a little cafe that does scrambled eggs with sausages (mini frankfurters) and pancakes so that sounds good to us. It's double the price of what we paid in Tokyo for the same meal and the pancakes aren't nearly as good, but it fills us up. We haven't booked tickets for the train to Hiroshima beforehand so really hope there are stills seats available, and thankfully there are. Its a 2hr 15 min train journey which isn't too bad, but we're really starting to feel the effects of walking pretty much 12 miles each day along with all the travelling around and our bodies are getting a bit sore. We are looking forward to getting there now and taking it a bit easier. We haven't scheduled much to do today which is just as well, as we are both looking forward to a more leisurely afternoon. We had originally said we might take a boat trip to Miyashima, but we both think it would just be far too much of a rush and we wouldn't enjoy it the same therefore decide against it. Its a pity as we've read its really lovely, but we've already crammed in so much and can only do what we can.



We arrive at Hiroshima station on schedule and this next part of the journey is up to Greg as I haven't printed off directions for the next hotel. Greg has reassured me he knows where we are going and he shows me a screen shot of the map to get to our hotel. But not only is it zoomed out so you can't actually see any streets or street signs, it looks discerningly far to walk.. I ask how long it says it will take to walk and Greg shrugs and suggests 'maybe 10 – 15 minutes' which I am hugely dubious about. Plus I don't fancy a 15 minute walk with the heavy cases in the first instance (along with this bloody umbrella that we have thus far not needed in the slightest) so I advise we should check to see if there is maybe a subway we can take instead. In the end we (I) manage to deduce there is a street tram that will take us all the way to pretty much outside the hotel, and its just as well someone is paying attention as Greg isn't much help based on the fact he is tired and hungry (and has a carefree 'och we'll just walk until we find it' kind of attitude). The tram is really straight forward and does indeed drop us off right outside the hotel. Thank goodness we didn't attempt to walk, as it would have taken us about an hour! The hotel staff are really friendly and we even have a complimentary breakfast and unlimited tea and coffee which we are both pretty pleased with. Once in, I check reviews of the hotel and notice pretty much everyone has mentioned about taking the street tram and not attempting to walk!



We make use of the free coffee facilities and then head out for some lunch. There is a little food chain right next to the hotel, and its one of those vending machine places that you order a dish and then they deliver it to your table which is cool. I order beef udon noodles and Greg orders duck udon noodles. My broth is actually really fishy which puts me off, so we swap broths and I give greg all the meat from mine so we are both happy.



The Peace memorial park is only a 5 minute walk from our hotel, and so we make our way there before it gets dark. Its a beautiful park and of course its really interesting and sobering to see the remains of the building where the bomb was dropped all those years ago. Along the way we spot a chinese tourist wearing a bomber jacket which reads “U.S airforce- faster than the speed of a bullet” on the back and we both gawk in amazement at how distasteful it is for a place like this…. I'm sure the poor guy has no idea the significance of what his jacket says. We head on to the memorial museum which gives a full history of what happened leading up to and after the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It makes for really interesting reading, and the collection of clothing and items found after the bomb really hits home how devastating it was.



History lesson over for today we head back to the hotel for our usual pre-dinner beers and to relax for a little bit. Even though we've taken it a bit easier today, the fitbit tells us we have still managed to clock up 6.5 miles walking! I really fancy some okonomiyaki pancakes again as they were so tasty the last time, plus Hiroshima is well known for them. We try one little place only for her to tell us 'long wait' so we keep going until we stumble upon another little place with a grill at the bar so you can watch the chefs make the omelette pancakes in front of you. We order a few washed down with some Japanese beer which we have grown very fond of. Afterwards we buy some japanese cheesecake for dessert which is heavenly – i'm still convincing myself all the walking we are doing means the calories from our food and beers won't surely count...

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Photos

The original remaining building
The river was used as the target area