Hiroshima - Okonomiyaki and Beer

The A-Dome
see all photos »

We arrived in Hiroshima from Himeji late in the afternoon and walked to our hotel which was across the river from the JR station, about 10 minutes walk. We walked back to the station for dinner at one of the many restaurants above the station. For an easy day we managed to fit in a lot. We did our washing (washing machines in the hotel basement) and fell into bed.

When we set out in the morning it was overcast so we borrowed an umbrella from the hotel. By the time we walked up the street to Hiroshima Castle it was torrential. So, breakfast became more important than visiting the castle.

Child workers memorial
see all photos »

Keeping with the food being good at transport hubs theme, we walked to the bus interchange which is inside the Sogo department store. Breakfast was excellent and consisted of a bacon and egg pastry (Japanese French yummy) some french toast and coffee. Yes the Japanese have adopted an European breakfast, at least when they are travelling.

The rain stopped while we were eating so we walked to the A dome, perhaps the most famous symbol of Hiroshima. The A bomb exploded almost directly overhead this building and it was one of the few buildings left standing. The building has been preserved in the same state as immediately after the bombing. It is a world heritage site despite the USA and China not wanting it to be classified as such.

The remains of 70,000 people are buried in this mound
see all photos »

We crossed the river to the Peace Memorial Park which contains a number of memorials including the monument for the children who died and another for Korean victims. Ten percent of the people who died were Koreans as at the time Korea was a Japanese colony.

The children's monument is a statue of a girl with outstretched arms with a folded paper crane rising above her. It is based on the true story of Sadako Sasaki , a young girl who died from radiation from the bomb. She believed that if she folded 1,000 paper cranes she would be cured. People from around the world fold cranes and send them to Hiroshima where they are placed near the statue. When they look tatty they recycle them into cards. It is also called Tower of a Thousand Cranes.

It happened at 8:15 am
see all photos »

We walked through the Peace Memorial Park and visited the other memorials before walking through to the Shukkeien Garden. The garden was originally established some time around 1620 as a miniature for a Chinese landscape. As expected, the garden was totally destroyed in 1945 and what you see now has been established since that time. Today it is overshadowed by high rise buildings, but is still worth a couple of hours wandering. Again we saw a bride having photos taken in traditional dress. The gardeners had placed some fake tortoises and birds on the islands in the lake so that visitors would not be disappointed. They were pruning the conifers into the required shape while we were there. The trees are definitely groomed, with any extraneous branches etc removed so that the traditional shape is maintained.

Shukkeien Garden after the blast
see all photos »

We walked back past the school Sadako Sasaki attended, to the railway station and caught a train to Miyajimaguchi, the station near the ferry to Miyajima Island. (see next entry for Miyajima)

In the evening we went to the JR station and in keeping with the eating plan, we went to the floor of okonomiyaki bars on the second floor and chose the busiest and loudest one to eat. We were the only white people here and therefore something of a novelty. We were treated to excellent service and a demonstration of what a Japanese bar should be like...What a great eating experience. Hiroshima okonomiyaki is different to that in Osaka and each city claims theirs to be the best.

Shukkeien Garden 2008
see all photos »

My vote goes to Hiroshima okonomiyaki. It is a thin pancake cooked on a hot grill in front of you (at the bar) onto which the other ingredients are added and cooked. It seems to have a fair amount of cabbage and pork and yakisoba noodles. It also had prawns and ginger, spring onions  etc and was topped by a cooked egg and a great sauce. On the top they sprinkled seaweed powder and bonito flakes. It was served hot straight off the grill plate. Washed down by a cold beer it was awesome after a day seeing the sights.