The stay in Hiroshima started really well with the baseball game we went to on our first night. The crowd were well up for it and there where "high-5's" all round when the Carp scored a home run. In the middle of one of the sets, or innings or rounds, (whatever!) the crowd started to blow up these very phallic looking pink balloons and then everyone started singing a song. At the crescendo everyone with a balloon let it fly off into the air so there was a huge swarm of giant pink mickeys floating in the twilight. It was a very surreal sight! The next day we went all over Hiroshima city on bike. Elaine is so brave!. We saw the A-Bomb Dome, the site were, on 6th August 1945, the atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. It's a very eerie place, this huge concrete skeleton sitting as a reminder in the midst of a huge green park teeming with tourists. After that we headed to Hiroshima Castle which had some nice displays of samurai swords, but I wasn't allowed take photos :(

The next day took us out to Miyajima, an island just outside Hiroshima city. There's the famous floating torii and lots of very tame deer roaming around the island. There bloody cheeky too, one tried to steal my lunch! After heading back to our hostel we had just enough energy to try ordering some Japanese food and were rewarded for our efforts with a really delicious meal of okonomiyaki, which is a weird pancake, with noodles, cabbage, bacon and BBQ sauce. I know it sounds terrible but it was delicious!

Check out the photos on Flickr.