Japan 2024

It's overcast today and a cooler 19c, thank God. We had our Tullys breakfast - we went to the same store on the shopping street. We then put our rain jackets on and set off to do some sightseeing - you can't let a little rain get in your way.

We took a streetcar to Hiroshima station and then walked from there to Shukkeien Gardens. It's a large japanese gardens and very well maintained. There were a lot of tourists wandering around, including some loud Australian bogans. It reminded me of Kath and Kim - "it's different, it's unusual."

The Gardens were really beautiful, and we wondered around reading the little plaques. I read a plaque that outlined that the tree in front of us was the only original ginkgo tree in the garden, having miraculously survived the bomb. There was also a small timber shrine that had survived. It's these little reminders that the locals have retrieved and restored their heritage from the ashes.

We then walked about 10 minutes to the site of Hiroshima castle. There is a reconstructed castle on the grounds of the ruins - it's a big area, so I can only imagine there would have been many other structures.

It was now lunchtime, so we took the streetcar back to the Hondori area. We were aiming at okonomoyaki from the same place, Nagataya, we visited twice on our previous visit to Hiroshima. This place has become super popular, and the lineup was insane, so we decided to go elsewhere.

We walked around the corner to try our luck at Number 3 steak restaurant, and we were lucky again. The chef remembered us from the other night! We ordered the lunch special, slices of tender beef on rice; it was magnificent.

In the evening, we were in the mood for fish and chips and a cold beer. It's still a bit wet outside so we had our rain jackets with us. We went to Molly Malones Irish pub 😀 It was on the 4th floor of a building but looked exactly like every other Irish pub in the world on the inside. The food, the beer and the service were all good, so I am in no way guilty for eating fish and chips whilst in Japan 😆😅

We wandered back to the hotel through the covered shopping street, stopping to look at puppies and unusual vending machines.Читать далее