Day 8 - Hiroshima

Shinkansen (Bullet Train)

Again we had breakfast in the room, a combination of Japanese & Western foods. Today wecaught the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima, a 2 hour 40 minute trip, or over 4 and a half hours by car. Our initial impressions were of a typical modern city, and with an overcast sky and drizzling rain, looked a bit depressing.

View of the railway station complex
from the Kawashima Hotel

We had lunch at the station and then booked into the nearby Kawashima Hotel.

The building at "Ground Zero' above
which the bomb exploded

Our first experience of the aftermath of the atom bomb blast was at the Atomic Bomb Centre. It provided a pretty eye-opening experience of what it was like, not only the effect of the bomb itself, but the lingering aftermath. One can understand why Hiroshima is at the forefront of the peace movement and banning of atomic weapons.

Monument to the people who
died in the atomic bomb blast

Detail of the paper cranes on the
monument left by visitors

Plaque on the site of the
Hiroshima Branch of the
Teikoku Bank, 360 metres
from the hypocentre

A 'selfie' on the water taxi

Because the city's on a river delta, we caught a water taxi for a ride along the river to get a better view of the city. It was a good way to see the city form a different viewpoint, and especially some of the important sites related to the impact of the bomb.

Frances, Yuko and Gorou at the baseball

We had an early dinner at a 711 store because later we were to watch a baseball game with Yuko at Gorou. Yuko had stayed with Frances for a couple of years more than 10 years ago, and had met Gorou in Sydney. They returned to Japan, married and had a daughter, but had always kept in touch. It was great to catch up with them again, and to watch their team, the Hiroshima Toyo Carp, take on the visitors. There was huge and enthusiastic crowd and balloons seemed to be a big part of the team support.

Day 9 - Hiroshima

All women jazz band in Hon Dori

Again, we had breakfast in room, western style food. Yuko and Gorou were working so we used the day to explore more of Hiroshima.

Hon Dori shopping arcade

It was drizzling rain, so we went to Hon Dori shopping arcade, for some window shopping and to stay out of the rain. For lunch we went to an interesting restaurant where you could select small individual items, a bit like the now popular sushi trains restaurants, but with a greater variety of dishes.

Shop display of action figures at
Hon Dori

Hon Dori has many small specialist shops selling almost anything portable, pretty similar to the Teramachi area in Kyoto. Frances and I would split up at various times to look at the things that interested us, then meet up again and exchange information.

The building with the many small
bar/restaurants on the street level -
closed during the day

That evening we went looking for somewhere local to eat. Something that we had not encountered before was a number of small bar/restaurants on the ground floor of a large old building near the railway station. They were almost all run by a one to two of people, contained at most seating for about 10 people, and had very limited, but specialised menus - all in Japanese. We picked one that appeared to do a sort of BBQ style and attempted to order. The best we could do was to point at dishes other people were having and indicate we'd have the same.

Eating raw beef liver
Photo: Japan Times

This establishment specialised in BBQ beef - yaki-niku. For each order, the chef/owner would take some meat from a little bar fridge, slice it up and cook it. I tried in vain to order some vegetables and rice, but there was nothing else on the menu except beef. A charming young couple who were sitting next to us insisted we try some of their sliced raw liver which has now been banned. Frances declined, but I tried some, well soaked in the accompanying dipping sauce. It wasn't too bad, but not something I'd be too keen to try again. The overall experience was great though and everyone we met was very friendly. We ended up drinking our last bottle of red wine with the owner and another diner who was an obvious regular!

Day 10 - Hiroshima

The speedboat track(?)

These guys were going absolutely flat-out

Today we planned to spend day with Yuko & Gorou. After meeting them we drove for some time to catch the ferry to Miyajima island.

On the way, I was completely amazed when we passed a huge inland speedboat race track. There were small speedboats racing around this completely manufactured purpose-built facility. No different I suppose to the construction of a motor race-track, but it just took me by surprise.

The Itsukushima Shrine

Footbridge on Miyajima between the
the island and the Itsukushima Shrine

From the ferry terminal, it's about a 30 minute trip to Miyajima island. Miyajima is most famous for its giant torii gate, which at high tide seems to float on the water. The sight is ranked as one of Japan's three best views and the island is World Heritage listed.

The island is officially named Itsukushima, Japanese for "shrine island", after its main shrine, the Itsukushima Shrine, but more commonly known as Miyajima.

Gorou, Yuko and Frances with the
torii gate in the background

The Itsukushima Shrine during the
typhoon in early 2004 (copy photo)

Like the torii gate, the shrine's main buildings are built over water and in fact was almost destroyed in a major typhoon earlier in 2004. It was first built in 1168 by the powerful warlord Taira-no-Kiyomori.

Although it has been damaged by fire, storms and battle since then, it still looks like new. That's because it is always repaired using similar materials, tools and techniques that were originally used.

The wedding party - seriously

The bride and groom

Ride in a rickshaw pulled by a ninja

The shrine, and the island, is also popular for weddings and we were fortunate enough to see a wedding in progress. The entire wedding party then posed for a very serious formal photograph, even though the entire group was laughing and smiling seconds before and after the photo was taken.

Gorou standing below one
of the older paintings on a
wooden panel

As a major tourist destination, the island has all the usual trinket shops, but outside of the main ferry terminal it still retains a lot of its original charm. We walked up to one of the many temples on the island. The temple had no walls and consisted mainly of a timber platform, columns and roof, with a small altar in the centre.

A feature of the temple was the paintings mounted in the rafters that had been donated by benefactors, mainly families, some of which had been there for many years and were quite weather damaged, but some were relatively new.

Frances and Yuko eating the grilled oysters

There was no shortage of opportunities to buy snacks, but Frances and Yuko decided that they had to sample the freshly cooked oysters, grilled in their shells. I gave that on a miss. While waiting for a return ferry, we all went to one of the very pleasant cafes for tea.

Fernando (standing) in is okonomiyaki
restaurant

By now we were all getting a bit hungry, so Yuko & Gorou took us to lunch at Lopez, their favourite okonomiyaki restaurant run by Guatamalan Fernando Lopez in Yokogawa.

Okonomiyaki (not my photo)

I was surprised that they chose this restaurant rather than one run by Japanese, but Gorou said that he tried harder than the rest! Each person had a small metal-bladed spatula to cut off pieces of their okonomiyaki.

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked". Okonomiyaki is mainly associated with the Kansai or Hiroshima areas of Japan, but is now widely available throughout the country. Toppings and batters tend to vary according to region.

In the afternoon, we all visited an onsen near Kurea. An onsen is a term for hot springs in the Japanese language, though the term is often used to describe the bathing facilities and inns around the hot springs. Men and women bathe and wash naked on little stools, and I was a little surprised when one of the female attendants can into the men's area to clean and tidy up - no embarrassment anywhere! That night we had a dinner of yaki-niku (grilled beef) and other meaty delicacies at local all-Japanese restaurant with Yuko & Gorou. Later Yuko & Gorou took us for ice creams on the  11th floor food court of Fukuya Departo (a popular venue in central Hiroshima) which was incredibly busy for that time of night.

Day 11 - Hiroshima, Kansai

A washlet

Last day in Japan. In the morning we went shopping for clothes and a toilet seat. Frances was fascinated by the electronic toilet seats (Washlet) which did about everything except make a pot of tea. They could provide you with a complete toilet experience, but eventually we found that the wiring and plumbing required woul make one difficult to install in Australia.

We were so impressed by the 11th floor food court of Fukuya Departo the night before that we went there for lunch - excellent food and views over Hiroshima.

Part of the Astroboy display in the
Manga Library

In the remaining time we decided to visit some galleries. First we went to the Manga Library which had a special display of Astroboy (Tetsuwan Atomu) As a manga and anime fan, I found this just fantastic. Manga (Japanese comics) are written for boys, girls, men and women in Japan and its not uncommon to see adults reading them on public transport. They are generally paperback size and a typical monthly issue has about 200 pages.

Frances feeding the bomb-eating teddy

The 'faces' could be swung in multiple
directions

Our final visit was to the Contemporary Art Gallery, which coincidentally had an exhibition of new work by Hiroshima artists. The work was varied, much of it interactive, and some had references to the dropping of the atomic bomb. For example one huge sculpture consisted of a conveyor belt on which delivered bombs into the mouth of a giant stuffed toy that made a horrendous noise when they dropped.

In the afternoon, we caught the Shinkansen (Bullet Train) again to Osaka where we changed to the Rapid (nowhere near as fast as the Shinkansen) to Kansai airport. We had dinner there and spent the last of our Yen while waiting to board the plane for the return home.