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Day 165 - 166 (16th August - 17th August)
Our final destination in Japan was a short trip to Hiroshima to visit the peace dome and the peace park.
The peace park area is on the west side of the city, the first building we came across was the peace dome. This is the only building that remains from the bomb blast, it is only 150 meters from the hypercentre of the blast but somehow survived, albeit it is a hollowed out shell of a building but retains the metal arches from a dome that used to be at the top of the building. This building is a very stark and moving reminder of the city's darkest day.
We then crossed over the river, over the famous T shaped bridge (used by the USA as the target for the A bomb) to the peace park. The peace park is situated between two rivers and contains many monuments and memorials for those who lost their lives because of the bomb. Towards the south of the park is the peace museum and memorial. The museum was similar to one we had visited in Nagasaki but was much more crowded as Hiroshima is much closer to the major tourist cities of Toyko and Nagasaki. As with Nagasaki the visit was very humbling and important to us both.
Whilst in Hiroshima we were very keen to taste some of the local cuisine, in particular okonomiyaki which is a noodle and cabbage pancake. We headed for an area of the city where our map told us there was some good okonomiyaki to be had. When we got there we weren't sure where to go but there was a local guy pointing us into what looked like a multistory carpark with a lift in the corner. We thought we would just go for it and got into the lift and went up to the second floor. When the lift opened we were faced with a small floor with five little okonomiyaki bars all with owners beckoning us into their establishments.
For a moment this was all a little overwhelming, especially for Tina as she then got herself trapped in the lift door as it closed. We eventually picked a bar to go into and sat down. We soon realized the whole bar area was a massive hotplate, on which the pancake is cooked in front of you and once cooked you then eat the pancake off the hotplate. To eat the pancake you are given a small device to cut and then scoop up and eat the pancake. This took a little getting used to as you had to be careful not to cut yourself as you eat the pancake. We soon got the hang of it, although instead of cutting the pancake Tina seem set on as making as much mess as possible and spread her pancake all over the hotplate. Overall it was a great experience made better by the help we had from the cooks and one of the other customers in the bar who did there best to help us despite struggling with English.
Our trip to Japan has to be one of the highlights of the trip so far. One of the best features of Japan was how warm and helpful the people were. They would always do their best to help us even if they did not speak much English, often approaching us first if we looked lost. It was very refreshing and helped us out of a few potential scrapes.
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