Had to transit in Osaka, where we did some shopping in the unbelievably huge station.
Everytime we arrive at a station we look out for this board which tells us which track to head to in the confusing maze that is all JR stations.
Arrived in Hiroshima after 2 hrs.
Hiroshima gave me a different feel altogether, it's not like old town kyoto, or bustling Tokyo, but it has a rather peaceful and quiet feel to it.
And in Hiroshima was where we got lost for the first time, we tried to locate our hotel using the city map, and I even have a photo of the hotel in my handphone, but strangely the hotel just couldn't be found at the spot the map said it would be. Liang even went off to run around the area, leaving me with the luggage. And 2minutes after he's gone, I realised tat all this time we have been looking at the wrong icon on the map, the name Ark Hotel on the map is surrounded by 2 icons and the one we've been looking at for the past 20minutes belong to another hotel altogether. Doh! *palm face*
First thing we did was to find some place for lunch.
Decided to eat at another cheap restaurant with importantly, a wide array of plastic food samples. The menu is again no help, but the waitress very kindly said, "sam-pa! sam-pa!" and she went outside the restaurant to patiently wait for me to point out the food samples. The restaurant is another friendly, homely affair where we can sit on tatami and watch tv even.
The main (and only) tourist attraction in Hiroshima is the Peace Memorial Park, we decided to walk 25minutes there. Hiroshima is so small you can practically walk everywhere.
Peaceful city sights:
The museum depicts the history of events leading up to the Atomic Bombing and its aftermath. The photos and specimens of medical effects of radiation were really quite chilling. Not to be derogatory, but I really didn't understand why they had to include so many (close to 100) exhibits of personal items of people who died in the bombing and then tell lengthy detailed sentimental stories abt these people. Kinda took away the impact of the photos.
The A-bomb Dome is the epicentre of the atomic bomb destruction. As such it remained relatively unscathed in the explosion.
This is the actual building:
Children's Peace Memorial in memory of leukaemia victim Sadako, who folded 1000 paper cranes in the hopes of recovering. Folding of paper cranes symbolises the fulfillment of one's wishes.
Our hotel also thoughtfully placed a paper crane for us in our room.
The Centograph and Flame of Peace which would only be extinguished after the last nuclear weapon on earth is destroyed.
We can only live in hope.
A common sight to behold during Sakura season is that the most junior person in the company gets sent to 'chope' a space on the blue mat for his entire company from CEO to cleaning person and they will all drink and eat under the sakura together.
I am put to shame by Liang's self-shot skills:
My attempt:
We then had dinner at a Japanese BBQ restaurant recommended by our hotel.
The moment we stepped in, we stuck out like a sore thumb, because every single table is occupied by Japanese office guys in white shirts and black pants all behaving raucously and drinking beer like water.
Liang trying to fit in:
The manager who came to serve us speaks perfect English, so we decided to support him by having the extravagant buffet set (abt $30 per pax). The food was gooooood.
The only prob is that the manager disappeared after that and we had difficulty asking for refills (I think it's his evil ploy), but heng, we very innovative. I was looking at the menu and amidst the jumble of japanese words, I found the chinese word for cow, so i very cleverly pointed to that, and lo and behold the waitress brought us a plateful of tender melt-in-your-mouth beef slices.
Liang wanted chicken wings, i found the chinese word for chicken but that was followed by the words "mao mao" (=fur in chinese), so we scared it stands for chicken skin, so Liang also cleverly pointed to his chicken wing bones and we flapped our arms for good measure. Think the waiter enjoyed our act, cos he gave us a huge plate of wings.
We emerged from the restaurant very very full and happy:
And the long 20minute walk back to our hotel in the freezing cold digested most of our food for us so I didn't feel too guilty falling asleep on a full stomach.
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