Our first full day in Hiroshima and we had a pretty full day planned. It was also a beautifully sunny day and quite warm compared to Osaka and Kyoto.

What we did

First, we visited what is now called the A-bomb Dome. It has become the main symbol of the city. Even though the explosion happened not very far away, the remnants of the copper dome and the centre constucts of the building remained fairly intact. The city has now gone to lengths to keep what is left the way it is as a reminder and memorial.

We then walked over the T bridge to the peace park to view the many statues snd shrines. It’s a very beautiful park and it was really lovely to see the people of the city utilise it by having picnics and generally enjoying the surrounds.

Whilst here we also visited the Museum of Peace. Unfortunately, quite a large portion of the musuem was undergoing renovations, but what was there at the time was still informative and well presented.

By this time it was lunch, so we made our way to okinomi-mura to the mecha of Hiroshima style okinomiyaki. This was a 6 level building with levels 2 to 4 housing nothing but okinomiyaki places. It really was cool. We found a place, sat down and enjoyed a hearty lunch.

To walk off the lunch, we went to the Shukkeien Garden. My word was this place just perfect. It had beautifully sculpted grounds, giant ponds full of koi, sakura in full bloom and many places to sit and take it all in. Boy did we too. We spent hours here meandering the many paths as sitting in various places.

We were even treated to a show by an energetic koi who sporadically jumped out of the water in spectacular fashion. George tried to get a picture of this, but only managed this one (zoom in near the island).

Whilst we were sitting, we decided that we wanted to see a baseball game whilst in Japan. We also decided that we supported the Hiroshima Carp…because carp. Also they seemed to be the underdogs and the people here had such a passionfor them. Turns out that they won the leauge last year after a long drought. We didn’t care. We were now loud and proud Carp fans! We even booked tickets to a game against the Yomiuri Giants in Tokyo. We are both quite excited for that!

As the place we had marked for dinner wasn’t open till 6, we made our way to the Pokemon Center because we gotta visit em all! The Hiroshima one was super fun. They had a whole section dedicated to the Carp baseball team with Magikarp on it. We both bought a shirt and I bought a scarf…because super fans! We did end up with a pretty big haul though which you will see 🙂

With our loot in hand, we then walked to the tsukemen restaurant for dinner. Such yummy food that we need to learn the secrets of!

It was quite a big day all up with 20,984 steps walked.

What we ate

Hiroshima Okinominaki as well as yaki-soba noodles from one of the many places in okinomi-mura.

Tsukemen, both hot and cold versions. This was spicy and yum. I let George control the spice…I could have gone way hotter :p

At the Pokemon Center, we found the Pokemon version of the famous Hiroshima cake momiji manju. George was skeptical but I had read good things on the internet about it. I was right. These maple leaf filled cakes are just phenomenal. Like so good. We couldn’t stop at one…so we had 2!

We think this one was red bean flavoured.

And this one was custard.

Look at the pretty box!

What we bought

Our Pokemon Center haul.