Up once again at daft o'clock to get packed up and check out of the ryokan. One last Japanese breakfast before we went and then we (and Pochi) said goodbye and thanks to the staff, and that we’d keep in touch. Which we have. On Facebook. Isn’t the Internet a wonderful thing! I know I’ve banged on about it but can’t recommend it highly enough.

Dragged the case and the bulging bag containing Toji Market in a vacuum pack across to Kyoto Eki so we could catch the Shinkansen for the next stage of the holiday in Hiroshima.

Went to book tickets as we thought it was worth it since it’s a reasonably long journey. However  although we could get reserved seating for the first leg (Kyoto to Shin Kobe) after that there were no reserved places available on any service running that morning. Bugger. Oh well never mind we thought, we’ll just have to find a seat. Shouldn’t be an issue: there had been plenty on all the other trains.

To no-ones surprise the train arrived on time, we found our seat and stowed the luggage. Didn’t really have to split/Takkyubin the luggage we thought – plenty of room on the racks. Fell asleep about five minutes into the journey to wake up just outside Shin Kobe where we changed train.

Despite there being quite a lot of 16 car Nozomi Shinkansen (which as I’ve said you can’t use with the JR Pass) and most Kodama being 16 cars too, the few Sakura ones only have 8 cars for some reason and of them 3 were reserved seating only. Still – 5 cars to get a seat. How hard could that be?

Impossible as it turns out.

Train absolutely packed with people and not a seat to be had anywhere in the non-reserved section. Sod it. Ended up sitting on the floor outside the compartment although we did manage to stow our luggage in the space at one end of the carriage. Just as well we only had one suitcase then after all!

Still, to be fair it’s only a 73 minute journey and since it was still so early (and I might have had a drink or two the night before) slept for a lot of it. Tracey not so much. Vowed to get the tickets booked earlier on the return leg. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t make any difference.

Got to Hiroshima earlier than expected at about 11:35am, primarily because I’d planned the timings in advance while in the UK and reading the online train timetables isn’t easy. Scottish idiot indeed. Anyway, thought it was worth going straight to the hotel and at least asking if we could leave our luggage we could check in later. Too far to walk, especially with suitcase in tow so toddled off outside the station to the bus park. Which is also the tram park. Didn’t even know Hiroshima had trams but they do and (as we found out later) they are a bit cheaper and less prone to getting stuck in the horrific traffic round Peace Park*. 

Anyway, bit of confusion over which bus to get as it’s not immediately obvious and there are a heck of a lot of services running. Eventually sorted ourselves out with only mild swearing and only one really very minor divorce. Slight consternation trying to work out how to pay (I think we should have grabbed a ticket on the way in) but didn’t have to play the gaijin card too heavily.

The bus dropped us right next to the hotel which is directly opposite the Peace Park, about a five minute walk from the museum. We went to check in and while I talked to the human on reception Tracey talked to the robot. Well, the robot talked to Tracey but entirely in Japanese so the conversation was a bit one way. I think probably because we arrived late enough to miss check-out but too early for check-in I ended up speaking to the only member of reception staff on the whole trip whose English was worse than my Japanese. This would have been no problem but as he initially couldn’t find our booking (despite me having printed it off in both English and Japanese) it got a tad fraught for a few minutes. Happily though he found it before the rising panic spilled over into abject fear so all good. And he checked us in too so we could dump the gear in the room and sort ourselves out before venturing out again. Nice hotel too and surprisingly cheap given its proximity to the Park.

Very quick freshen up and then straight across the road to visit the Peace Memorial Museum. On the way we passed the first of many memorials - the Memorial to the Victims from the Hiroshima Municipal Girls' School. Did tear up a bit on realising that the long inscription is a list of all the names.

On to the Museum itself. It’s a genuinely well done and incredibly moving museum that brings the results of the bombing and its aftermath down to a relatable, human level with individual accounts and artefacts. It’s very like the best tour guides achieve at the Holocaust camps of Auschwitz, Birkenau and Sachsenhausen: the numbers are just so large they become meaningless otherwise. The whole thing is justifiably shocking, the biggest for me being the discovery that the USA had killed thousands of Japanese civilians just doing practice runs for the A Bomb with what they called “Pumpkins”.

Note: Since we’ve got back I’ve watched a lot of documentaries about the development of the A‑Bomb and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These are two of the best in my opinion, although there are loads of excellent ones, all supplementing what we’d learnt in the short time available in the museum. Try to ignore the thinly veiled jingoism in the first one as it’s genuinely instructive in showing the extent of the damage to the area. Also footage has recently been digitised of what Hiroshima looked like before the war. You can see the Aioi bridge and the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall (the building that became the Genbaku Dome) starting at 2:19. Reminds you that it was normal everyday folks that were vapourised not just the military. I know - total war and all that but still - makes you pause doesn't it?

All in all, the museum isn’t exactly what you’d call a pleasant experience given the subject but it does its job of providing a real warning from history spectacularly well and worth every second of the time we spent there.

After this we took several hours touring round the Peace Park, taking in the main cenotaph and eternal flame and then looking at the different memorials, of which there are way way more than you’d expect. Even found one donated by the people of Scotland. The Sadako Sasaki one is probably the most moving as, again, it’s an individual story and includes thousands (millions?) of paper cranes folded by people from all over the world. I know the students at Notley High folded a load for one of our exchange language assistants to take back years ago.

We then crossed the (rebuilt) Aioi Bridge that was used by the Enola Gay’s bomb crew as a targeting aid and walked round to the most famous landmark, the A‑Bomb (Genbaku) Dome. Very affecting. Difficult to say more to be honest especially once you realise that it’s only standing because it was directly under the air blast (zero point). As a result the shockwave hit it top down rather than side on, vaporising everything and everyone inside but leaving the walls relatively intact. You can see it in the first movie above at about 7 minutes in.

Toured around the dome for quite a while then headed toward the town centre, past several other monuments and memorials, including the one dedicated to the children pressed into service to support the war effort in the area and therefore killed or severely affected by the blast and the aftermath.

Change of pace once we got outside the Peace Park.

Wombled around the shops and had our first visit to Mr Donut. Not the last – their coffee is great and their doughnuts are nommy. Yes that is a word. Deal with it. Then spent ages and ages looking around for, you’ve guessed it, a good okonomiyaki shop. That makes a change eh? Look, we’d been told by several people before (Yuka San) and on the trip that Hiroshima style okonomiyaki was especially good and very different to Tokyo/Kyoto/Osaka. So put it down to a research project then, rather than some sort of obsessive gastronomic compulsion. We did find a lot of restaurants but (apart from a slightly dodgy looking one in a basement) didn’t find an okonomiyaki one. Yes, I know now that we walked past several as we found them the next evening when we weren’t looking. Did get to see a lot of that part of Hiroshima though.

Gave up looking after hours of walking and headed back to the hotel. And there were two okonomiyaki restaurants almost right next door. Because of course there were.

Decided on one called Henkutsu-ya which was definitely a good call. Incredibly friendly staff who seemed genuinely interested in talking to us (despite the major distraction of the TV showing the local team’s live baseball game). Mixture of Japanese and a small amount of English which is par for the course. I did ask and they don’t get many visitors from the UK but get most of their English speaking customers from Australia, which makes sense. However (even highly unskilled) Japanese speaking foreigners do seem a bit on the rare side. Anyway, Hiroshima okonomiyaki is definitely win with all the noodles in it and turned out to be Tracey’s favourite of the trip. The sake and beer were good and since it was on the menu I tried shōchū for the first time. It tastes like a cross between whiskey and Pernod (at least the one I had did) and not at all bad once you water it down. But I’m sticking to sake thanks!

On the subject of sake, tomorrow is Saijo – “Sake Town”, complete with tour of a brewery, organised by Yuka San. Excited much :-)

Quick constitutional walk around the area before bed. As you do. Or at least as we seem to do on holiday anyway.

*They were building another bridge over the river when we were there which can only help alleviate the traffic at the last junction. Honestly, it took as long for the bus to turn right at the last junction as it seemed to take to get there all the way from the bus station. It’s the most popular place for visitors in Hiroshima so it’s completely understandable.