I'm going to write about my long weekend trip to Hiroshima. I went with 3 of my friends from the Interac group.
The main reason for heading down that way was to attend a sake matsuri in Saijo (basically as much sake as you can drink for about £15 and a free cup!)
I took about 3 hours and 3 trains to get there but we arrived early afternoon and spent a good few hours becoming true sake connoisseurs (getting drunk).
The atmosphere was amazing. There were a lot of other gaijin around who were nice to chat to but the hammered Japanese were the best. Everyone was ridiculously friendly and always willing to pass on a sake recommendation.
I would have liked to stay longer than we did but we had another 2 trains to catch to our hotel so we left relatively early. Checking into the hotel we met a New Zealander named Gareth and his parents. Gareth joined us for the night which we spent sat on a fairly industrial piece of coast chatting and listening to music.
Up bright and early the next morning to check out and change hotels. We left our stuff in lockers at Hiroshima station ( I locked the right one this time) and headed for the Peace Memorial Park, museum and A Bomb dome. I've been before but it's still a pretty shocking afternoon.
The museum is very interesting though and the Peace Park, very relaxing and beautiful. The longer you spend in Hiroshima the more you feel you could be in Paris. The architecture, especially around the river, is very similar.
We ate Okonomiyaki for lunch.
Totemo oishii!!
Totemo oishii!!
After a brief wander around the shopping district and a glance at some wannabe 'idoru' we were ready to head home and primp for a night out. Like most places in Japan most of the bars were the size of a decent sized living room but there did seem to be more actual clubs here than I've seen elsewhere. Another night spent talking to lovely , drunk Japanese people.
The next day came and we were all tired, hungover or both so a relaxing day was needed. We boarded yet another train and headed for Miyajima Island.
As before, the views were stunning, the deer were intrusive and the tourists were out in full force. We did manage to get a couple of rocks with an amazing view of the floating shrine and were content to sit there for an hour or so.
We took the Shinkansen home (45 minutes instead of 3 hours) and had a well needed early night.
It was nice to finally see Hiroshima City properly but I have in no way seen all that I want to. Hiroshima has a really welcoming atmosphere and I hope to head back soon and see more of the city itself
It wouldn't have been as epic were it not for the company though. I loved the fairly random assortment of folks I went with and if the next few months are as awesome then it's going to be one hell of a trip!
