Blogging today is done by Sarah and Alan’s comments will appear in Red.
Today we had a bit of a sleep in as we wanted to milk the last of our very nice hotel in Osaka.
We checked out at 11am and tried to cash a travellers cheque. No go. I don’t know if we will ever be able to cash one. The Lonely Planet says you can cash them at Banks and major hotels. Well the major hotel didn’t work and trying to find a bank around is hard. We actually found one today but, of course, it was Saturday and was closed.
We made out way to the train station to get to the main station in Osaka. The trains and platforms were packed. What we had been expecting during the week turned out to be what happens on the weekend. Everyone rides the train.
We made it to Osaka and then made our way to get our reserved ticket on the fast Shinkansen (bullet train). This was a fun task due to our lack of Japanese and the ticket agent’s lack of English. Thankfully I had done enough homework to know what train we needed, the time and even the track number from which it left.
We had an enjoyable feast of sandwiches before getting on the train. They make the best sandwiches here and they are so cheap. I really like the fact that sandwiches come with their crusts already cut off over here.
It was a lovely smooth ride and we had been placed in the silent car so it was, naturally, very quiet. I find it pretty hard to be quiet for an hour and a half but I managed. Yes, he might have been quiet, but he was his ever annoying ‘I’m bored’ self.
We arrived in Hiroshima and were amazed at the amount of ‘white’ people around, including a number of Australians. Also, English is much more common here. Must be because of it being such a tourist destination. We got very simple directions on how to get to the hotel and arrived about 8 minutes later. As was the case in Osaka, the public transport here in Hiroshima is first rate. It’s fast, clean, runs on time and there is another service coming along practically as soon as the previous one departs.
This hotel is strange. It is a very narrow building wedged between two other buildings.
The guy at the front desk spoke reasonable English, enough for us to understand that although we booked a non smoking room 3 months ago, none were available. The room is tiny, but not as bad as the bathroom. The smell of smoke was a little bad but we ignored the “do not open this window in case of an emergency” sign as this really was an emergency.
As we are on the 10th floor, which is the 2nd highest floor in this hotel, we have more of a view of those on other floors, who look into the next building. We have a view of the next building’s roof.
We left the room and started walking to the Atomic Bomb site and then realised it was a little further than Alan thought, so we jumped on the tram. The site isn’t as spectacular as we would have thought but it was still good to walk around it and to the Peace Park.
For those who aren’t good when it comes to history, The Atomic Bomb Dome (officially known previously as the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall) was the only building in the immediate vicinity that wasn’t completely destroyed when the bomb fell. Around 140,000 people died and the Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park and Eternal Flame now stand as memorials to those who lost their lives. 3 days later Nagasaki suffered the same fate as Hiroshima and a further 6 days after that Japan surrendered to the allies, thus ending World War 2. The Atomic Bomb Dome is now a world heritage listed site. Thank you Alan, and Wikipedia, for that history lesson.
We were given a great map at the train station, in English, which said there was a great viewing spot for Hiroshima Castle from a shopping centre. We walked the few blocks, and the map was right. The view was great, not only of the Castle and its garden, but the baseball stadium next door. The local baseball team are called the Hiroshima Carp. Not sure why you would want to call your team the Carp. They’re good catching fish but not great eating (people familiar with The Castle will recognise that quote).
We returned by tram to the hotel, where we were given an education by the tram driver on how to make our own change to pay for the tram. The Japanese work very much on an honour system. You get on the tram and then you pay when you get off. Nothing is stopping you getting off the back of the tram and not paying the fare. At ¥150 ($2.20) flat fare, it is hardly a lot of money. Thank goodness we’re honest clean-living people.
For dinner we ventured across the street to this amazing place I had read about. It’s an Okonomiyaki Restaurant. An Okonomiyaki is a Japanese pancake. They are common all over Japan but in Hiroshima it is their specialty. It is a pancake topped with cabbage, bean shoots, other green stuff, yellow stuff and then on one we had pork (which was actually bacon) and the other was shrimp. This is cooked and then turned over. The pork one then had sobu (crispy noodles) and the shrimp had Odun (soft noodles). An egg is then cooked and the stack is placed on top where they pour a thick sweet Japanese soy sauce on the top which is then seasoned with salt, pepper, something else that was green and some sesame seeds. The meal was delicious, very filling and cheap. The staff were really friendly and most spoke English. I think our waiter was sick of us by the end as he had to come back about 17 times to refill Sarahs water. Well excuse me. If my glass had been like yours and not filled totally with ice, maybe there would have been more room for the water.
Tonight has been back in our tiny room where Alan was able to watch the Japan vs Bahrain soccer World Cup Qualifier while I wrote this blog.
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