Relatively early start in Hiroshima with a bit of a trek into town for breakfast. Revisited Mister Donut for a selection of salads, tofu and health….who are we kidding, it was coffee and doughnuts.

Not just any old doughnuts either as we ventured into the hitherto unknown territory of the chocolate croissant donut. Nomnomnom said Chris. Tracey said the same but with including the letter "m"s. Much coffee and nuts of dough later and it was off to the wonders of Saijo: Sake Town.

Look, there is a town called "Sake Town" ok!? Of course we were going!

Took the “Local train for local people” into the valleys outside Hiroshima. Very picturesque and a perfect example of the availability of lots of geographical space but not much to actually build on. Many tree covered slopes later and we arrived in Saijo.

Bit of a struggle to find tourist information (mainly because I'm thick) so eventually we went to the Kouban and asked a policeman. And followed his directions. And got lost again. And asked in a shop who took actually us to it. Well, at least we got some (more) exercise and it made me practice my Japanese eh!

There are 8 breweries in Saijo and it'd be rude not to visit them all for a sample eh? A couple were closed for visits although they did have shops open and samples available. Had a tour of the Kamoizumi brewery booked courtesy of Yuka San at 1:30 so we had a few hours to tour the others. Samples of sake then….don't mind if we do!

By the time we went to have our booked tour we'd already had 17 samples each and were really quite happy thanks. Also, pity it's not really possible to bring back Namazake (unpasteurised) as one of them from Sanyotsuru was incredible and about 19% proof!

Wombled (a little unsteadily) down to the Kamoizumi brewery to be met by our guide Kyoko San. She gave us a proper VIP tour of the entire brewery, even showing us the roof to see all the other breweries and why they were all on the same side of town (no iron in the water there apparently which would taint the final product). Will be writing later to a) thank her properly and b) apologise for the atrocious Japanese to which I subjected her! Really really interesting tour and she honestly could not have been more helpful.

Kyoko San then let us sample every type of sake they make. 10 of them (see main photo). Hard life eh? Bought several bottles and if we had had a team of sherpas we'd have bought more!

Later note: we could only actually bring one bottle back home as we were over our suitcase weight limit. The one we brought back was the fourth from the right in the main picture. And it is, genuinely, the best sake I have ever had. Can I find anyone who imports it? Nope. Am I trying? Oh hell yes!

Back to the train station, veering slightly to starboard, and returned to Hiroshima.

Slightly frustrating time trying to buy a cheap hold-all to decant some of our stuff and make it easier to stow it on the Shinkansen. Lots of expensive bags and a few cheap tiny ones but no cheap hold-alls.

And then we found a Daiso store :-)  £3 and 3 bags later…sorted. Love me some Daiso I do!

Return to hotel to dump shopping then off to the same Okonomiyaki restaurant as last night. Because why not. More sake. Because why not!?

And so to bed after a quick constitutional.

Might have fallen asleep in the bath. Not sure why. Answers on a postcard to the usual address.