Hiroshima

After another very pleasent ride in the Shinkansen (a lot of legspace even for me) we arrived in Hiroshima in the afternoon. We hadn't booked accommodation so the first thing we did was go strait to the tourist information and asked for nice and cheap place to stay in a good location ;D This method works very well in Japan since there is a tourist information in every train station at least in all the decent sized cities and they speak good english too. We got a really nice place (lot nicer than we expected) and it was quite cheap too. Some kind of conference hotel which worked as a youth hostel when there were no big events. We took a tram to the A-bomb dome and walked the rest of the way to the hostel.

In the evening we went to see the some of the Atomic Bomb sites, went to see the Hiroshima Castle, but there was only one "tower" left and we decided not to pay the entrance. After that we went to a nice park near the castle, but I can't remember the name. The sun was just setting and the foliage was still going strong so we got some nice pictures. After this we run into a CoCo Ichi - curry house and couldn't resist and also grabed a couple of beers in an irish pub. The A-Bomb museum was quite shocking and also maid you think about stuff...Definitely worth a visit if you go to Hiroshima.

(Looking cool at the intended bullseye)

(Abomb dome)

(We DON´T buy tickets(Lippuja ei osteta, antaa heittää))

After we met our german friends (Frau Keßler (es ist führ reich) and Johannes) in Miyajima, we maid plans to meet them the same night which was also our last night in Hiroshima. We went together to try the famous Hiroshima style okonomiyaki, which everybody had spoke so highly about in Tokyo...and it WAS good, lot better than the ones we had in Tokyo. We finnished the evening with a bottle of wine in a spanish bar/restaurant. Then it was time to say goodbye to the last JLSP students we were going to see in a while. It felt like the the exchange in Japan was over and now it was time to begin our trip. But still we had couple of days in Japan before heading to China.

(Nuclear nutrition)

Hiroshima was a very nice city, we all agreed on that. Everything was within walking distance (unlike Kyoto) and the public transportation also worked well. All the Atomic Bomb sites were interesting and the highlight was the nearby island of Miyajima, definitely worth a visit. Next destination was Himeiji Castle.

-Samuli