Hiroshima

We arrived in Japan at Hiroshima not really knowing what to expect. Of all the places we've visited, Japan conjures up the strongest images in our minds. Images of Geishas tripping down streets, goth & cyberpunk styled kids playing with their mobiles while impossibly stylish young ladies totter around in expensive high-heels and old men bow to anyone and everyone. As it happens most of this is true it would seem. The Japanese are amazingly friendly, peacefull, stylish and desperately polite. From the moment we touched down we were treated so well that it made our head spin. This even applies to the 'friendly' customs official who, on seeing us wobbling through cutoms under the weight of our backpacks, politely dragged us off to one side and proceeded, politely, to root through all our stuff. They're so unused to seeing backpackers, (understandable considering the cost of this place), that they didn't really know what to do. The hooky DVDs we'd bought didn't bother them but they got quite confused over my sterile medical kit and syringes especially when they misheard me explaining that it was a 'sterile' kit and thought I'd said 'steroid'.
A bus journey later and we were in our hotel, it was only a simple 'Comfort Hotel' but we'd managed to get it on the cheap through the nice lady at the tourist information office. It was a mere 35pounds a night and not the 50pounds that we were probably going to have to get used to spending. It's amazing how expensive it is here. Probably no more so than at home but the difference is that you don't have to buy three meals a day everyday at home. We'd gotten used to being wealthy in S.E. Asia and here we were right back to where we are at home money-wise. Suddenly our accommodation budget had shot from $15 dollars a night to anything from 50quid up! On the plus side our room did have a cube-like bathroom and a toilet with a built in bidet that washed your bum with hot water. The hotel also had vending machines for instant noodles and beer! This was obviously a highly classy establishment.
There's also vending machines on pretty much every street corner selling pop, hot or cold cans of coffee and the humourously named beverage 'Pacori Sweat'.
Anyhow, we settled in to Hiroshima very easily indeed. It's a fantastic city with a brilliant small-town feel to it. It's just like any other city in that you can get everything you want and the transport allows you to go whereever you want, whenever you want and yet it's small enough to get to know in a couple of days. It's also rapidly becoming a very trendy area as more and more funky bars, (the kind you'd be pleased of in Brighton or London), and boutiques open up. The best thing about it is that these places are still relatively quiet and uncrowded as Hiroshima itself is a very peacefull town. The streets are lined with the uber-cool Japanese and we felt more than a little dour wandering about in our big 'North Face' coats and heavy walking shoes.
The first thing we did here was to visit the infamous 'A-Bomb Dome' & 'Peace Museum'. The dome is the old Prefecture building and was one of the only buildings left standing after the Americans dropped 'Little Boy' from the 'Enola Gay' directly above it back in 1945. It now stands as a reminder of the destructive power of nuclear and atomic weapons and it's a strangley beautiful sight as it sits there in the peace of the park bordered by the river and surrounded by cherry blossoms and families picnicing.
The Peace Museum is a more sombre affair as it charts the history of Japan & Hiroshima up until that terrible day and it's aftermath. The people of Hiroshima have taken it upon themselves to work towards a nuclear weapon free World and every year they hold an event to commemorate the destruction of Hiroshima and make the 'Peace Declaration'. In the entrance foyer to the museum there is a huge clock that counts the days since the last nuclear test and it resets everytime a new test is made. It was pretty startling to see that it was only at 40 odd days. The Hiroshimans(?) take all this in their stride and, though they are aware of their cities unique place in history, they're a very vibrant and upbeat people.
After the drama of the dome & museum a walk in the park was just what we needed and just what we did. We also walked the streets pausing only to press our faces up against the windows of high class and very stylish shoe and hat shops like hungry school kids. Beth mentally bought about a thousand pounds worth of shoes whilst walking from the park to the bar. The bar in question was called 'KOBA', this won't mean anything to those of you who aren't from Brighton but it made us feel a little closer to home as we sat in the bar and chatted to the bar man and his mate about the coincidence. He also introduced us to 'shochu', no, that's not his mate but a variation on 'sake' taht's apparently coming back into fashion with the young Japanese. It used to be the drink of choice for the drunks and the disillusioned but now, thanks to places like KOBA, it's on the up again. There are lots of different types made from things like rice, leaves and sweet potatoes, our fave was one distilled from brown sugar. We developed quite a taste for shochu over the next few days.
We also indulged in a local speciality called 'Okonomiyaki'. It translates as litterally 'cook anything you like' and it comes in the form of a pancake stuffed with cabbage, noodles and meat or fish that's cooked in front of you on a hot-plate and then smothered in a kind of brown sauce and eaten hot and it's absolutely bloody delicious!



Over the next few days the weather deteriorated a bit and the blue skies were replaced with clouds and outbreaks of rain so we spent a fair bit of time in shops looking at robots and wandering through the many arcades watching in awe as kids bashed away with perfect timing and lightning reflexes on some kind of crazy Japanese drum-based game of skill.



That night Beth & I bit the bullet and popped into a very Japanesey noodle shop and did lots of pointing at the menu & miming of animals until I got a lovely ramen noodle soup and Beth got some utterly great tempura shrimp & veg, with cold noodles which the waitress old her she had to dip into her pot of soy sauce.
All in all it was a great introducton to Japan and we left for Kyoto in very high spirits.