Day 2 - Hiroshima

Day 2 - Sunday 29th September 2019

Today we were up and out by 9.30, having a pastry for breakfast in a cafe. We tried to go up the TV towers viewing platform, but it was closed for renovation, so just headed to the main station for our train to Hiroshima.

We exchanged our print outs for our Japan rail passes which last all week. We paid extra for first class to be 'guaranteed' a seat. We got seated tickets for the first leg of the journey, but couldn't reserve for the second. Luckily we managed to find seats anyway, but this was a lesson to book our seats for each train earlier than the day we're travelling!

We got to Hiroshima without a hitch and met Luke at the station for lunch. Hiroshima is known for its okonomiyaki, which is a layer of savory pancake, cabbage, bean sprouts, pork, noodles, egg and delicious okonomiyaki sauce all cooked on an enormous hot plate in front of you. It was seriously tasty! The noodles go all crispy at the edges. Yum!

We then went and queued up to book our seats for all of our other trains. Our train to Kyoto will be at 6am in order for us to get a guaranteed seat for the 3 hour journey! I'd rather get up early than stand for 3 hours at a 'reasonable' time!

Luke went to get his train to Osaka to meet Tony and Margaret, who arrive today, and we went to check into the Candeo hotel, which is a bit bigger than our last room, yay. We can actually open our suitcase on the floor space.

We went for a wander into the centre of town to see the A-Dome, or the atomic dome, which is the remains of a domed hall for merchants to promote goods. The bomb hit almost directly over the building, so it avoided part of the blast. Everyone inside was killed, but the shell of the structure survived. It is now a UNESCO site and is a very powerful monument, in the middle of a park full of monuments to various groups of people who died in or in the after effects of the bombing. Its all very tasteful, and we will visit the museum tomorrow. I did get annoyed by the Chinese tourists smiling and posing for selfies in front of the building. A guard even told them off for standing on the monument. So disrespectful.

We headed to the bar district to find somewhere to watch the Wales vs Australia rugby match. We ended up in Bar G.O.D where there was a big screen and lots of westerners paying crazy prices for beer. Beer is very expensive in Japan! As is food in general. Wales just about won the match. It was very entertaining.

We ended up in a tiny local restaurant where a very friendly man cooked our food on a grill in front of us. We had bacon wrapped asparagus, chicken skin skewers ( not a fan ), pork skewers, aubergine in miso sause (yum!), grilled potato, sushimi tuna, and sausages. Delicious.

An early night tonight as we're getting up early for a day trip tomorrow.