Himeji to Hiroshima

After coffee and pastry at a patisserie between our hotel and the train, we bought our Shinkansen ticket from a helpful human and were on our way for the next 1 hour to Hiroshima. Whilst waiting at the platform however, two shinkansen travelled through the station without stopping. Holy moly, being that close at that speed was amazing. I caught a video of a third one which seemed to be a bit slower and the train wasn't as long.

Once in Hiroshima, we walked to our accommodation, dropped off our packs and headed out to the Shukkein Garden and wandered through there for about 45 minutes, stopped at the museum cafe on our way out for a coffee, and headed off to Hiroshima Castle. It was flattened by the bomb, rebuilt temporarily, dismantled and rebuilt again, so in this castle it wasn't so much about showcasing the buildings itself as at Himeji, but rather what life was like in the castle for the Shogun and samurai.

After that we headed off to the heavy stuff for the day, which kinda seemed fitting given the happenings back in Australia at Bondi. First stop, the Atomic Bomb Dome, then the Children's Peace Monument, passing by the Flame of Peace and the Hiroshima Victims Memorial Cenotaph onto the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. It was probably one of the more crowded places we have been here in Japan and for about two hours, we pretty much only heard feet shuffling as you moved past the stories and exhibits. It was very quiet and harrowing as one would expect. Reminded me very much of our visit to Dachau Concentration Camp Memorial Site in Germany in terms of the sombre mood.

We headed back to our accommodation which is a bargain at $77 in total for both of us for the night including breakfast. If we had timed things better that also included a free drink at happy hour. There is an onsen here too but we gave that a skip tonight.

After a "normal" shower, we headed out to the Hondori which is the main covered shopping street/arcade. Lynette had to return a shirt at UniQlo (tick) and then we decided to have a Hiroshima Okonomiyaki to see if it was better than Kyoto Okonomiyaki. Answer = yes it was, by a country mile. It came with an experience of it being placed on a teppen in front of you and you getting your own mini spatula to cut off bits to transfer to your plate. The beer was the cheapest I've had re t, so all up a bargain dinner, even if the restaurant itself had an ambience that was cool, but would not pass Australian food safety standards I suspect 🤭Read more