Eldora the Explorer: Adventure to Hiroshima

Two weeks ago we went to Hiroshima with Sam's sister. We took the Shinkansen up and bought some food at the station just before we jumped on the train. Sam and Lucinda got Gyudons that were self heating! You had to pull this string and leave the box closed for about 5 minutes before eating.

Sam pulling the string to start heating up his dinner

On Saturday.. it was pouring down rain.. We were told by the ladies at the reception desk that there was a breakfast place a few minutes walk away. It was a decent cheap breakfast. We continued on to the Hiroshima peace memorial museum. There were many youth painting outside the museum, under a walkway. It was a little surprising to see so many of them there as it was soo wet. Most of the paintings were really good. The museum was quite hot and stuffy inside as well as being crowded with people. It was interesting reading some of the reasons why the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The displays and pictures was an eye-opening and saddening experience as to the impact of the bomb on the city and it's people.

Memorial Cenotaph - holding the names of the people killed by the bomb

Peace Flame

Peace flame and Hiroshima peace memorial museum in the background

Sam and I turned around after taking some pictures and found Lucinda surrounded by Japanese students. Hehe.. They were elementary students learning about peace and had to speak to ask foreigners some questions.

Display made from folded paper cranes

People around the world fold paper cranes and send them to Hiroshima.

Children's peace monument

Bit hard to see, but the trees around the area had these green leaves coming out from where the branches branched out. Some trees looked like they had really hairy armpits. =P

A-bomb dome

Sam and I continued on to try some Okonomiyaki (my first time). I got a normal one (cabbage, bean sprouts, yakisoba, thin strips of pork, egg and special okonomiyaki sauce) with some fried garlic, whilst Sam got a 'special' one that had squid and prawn in it. It was tasty, however I thought it needed more sauce.. =P It was very big a filling for the price. I read about this cake shop called Maison Rabelais in a brochure I picked up from the place we were staying. We then headed to this cake shop to pick up a cream puff. The cakes they had were beautiful as well as being reasonably priced. They had these really tasty passionfruit marshmallows too. Sam and I got a cake as well as some cream puffs (lovely chouxs as they were called). That night we tried a different Okonomiyaki place called Ren Ren and had a Hamburg okonomiyaki. It was really good! Instead of having the yakisoba/udon on the base it had a meat pattie and cheese. Their normal Okonomiyaki was a better balance of ingredients that the place we tried earlier that day.

Delicious cake with a pistachio mousse and these amazingly tasty praline parts through the middle of the cake

Looks like the bird is asking for food rather than saying No!

Hiroshima had many of these yellow leaved trees

On Sunday it was beautiful weather and we went to Miyajima. We got a two day tram pass (2000yen/person) that allows you to take unlimited street cars (tram), the ferry to Miyajima and the Miyajima ropeway (cable car). The pass is worth it if you take the ropeway even if it's just for the day as the ropeway itself is 1800yen return. It was packed with people. We saw the Itsukushima tori gates, but didn't go into the shrine itself as there were many people queuing up to enter. We went on a little detour up to the ropeway. There was many people waiting and took approximately 70 minutes to get on the ropeway. The first ropeway takes about 10minutes, then you change to a larger car that holds about 30 people that takes about 4 minutes. The view was amazing from the Shishiiwa observatory. You can walk to Mt. Misen from there (about a 1 hour round trip walk). We decided not to as we were short on time (especially with the long queues).