Day 16 – Beppu to Hiroshima

I catch the early morning train, bidding farewell well to the incredibly friendly receptionist in Beppu, I did think at one stage he was going to barricade the door to stop us from leaving.

On the Eastern bank of the river Kynota-gawa river in Hiroshima stands the Atomic Bomb Dome, I'm sure most people would prefer the original name of The Internatiional Promotion Hall but on August 6th 1945 an atomic bomb exploded almost directly above it, killing everyone inside (and another 140,00 throughout the city), the building itself was one of the few that remained structurally intact anywhere near the epi-center.

In the afternoon I visit the Peace Memorial Museum which is both horrific and compulsive in equal measure. The wide tree-lined streets and laid back atmosphere make Hiroshima the nicest city I have visited in Japan, it is certainly not a place trapped by the past.

In the evening I visit Okonomi-mura a restaurant complex set over three floors each housing approximately ten different restaurants, which is not unusual, until I tell you that every one sells exactly the same dish – Okonomiyaki (a thick pancake-like dish of batter, eggs and cabbage with a filling of your choice). The restaurant I chose seemed to have a thing for pork as the 12 varieties of Okonomiyaki on the menu served everything from plain pork to pork with shrimp via pork with cheese and pork with korean pickle. I was tempted to tell the vendor I didn't like pork but feared the incident could descend into a Monty Python sketch, so simply ordered pork and spam.