19 November 2015
I got to wander
Viewing the Christmas illuminations of Hiroshima
Tonight was actually the first night I got to go for a proper wander around Hiroshima without getting wet. Its also my last night here.
Tomorrow I go to the unheard of Shimonoseki. The reason I am going there is because there was literally no accommodation in any main city for the Friday and Saturday night due to peak leaf hysteria season.
Anyway, its on the very bottom of the main island of Honshu, just across from Kyushu. I thought when I booked it would be a small fishing town, but it has a population of a quarter of a million, and walking distance under the ocean is another half a million at Kitahyushu.
Anyway, enough about tomorrow.
My wander around Hiroshima was great. As you can see below, they take xmas very seriously. My path was a looping course around all the areas I had been to before, through what I would guess is the red light district, across some bridges where I stopped to look at the darkness, and then I eventually ended up at the main station to buy my ticket for tomorrow.
I like to buy my ticket the day before, to eliminate waiting for hours, or having to find alternative transport on the day with my luggage in tow.
Along the way I was nearly killed by cyclists coming from every diretion, wrong side of the road, wrong way up a one way street, darting out of buildings. Most of them had babies on the back.
I also noticed a lot of smoking cafes and restaurants, even in department stores. I wonder if this differs from Tokyo where I cant really remember there being any left.
My last fun activity of the evening was to watch a bunch of tourists try and get directions from the tram conductor, before boarding the tram, thus holding up everyone already on the tram.
I blame google for this nonsense, because everyone now tries to use google translate, rather than just waving hands and speaking in English, which 99 times out of 100 does the trick. Google is making the world a dumber place.
These xmas lights go down every main street, miles and miles of it, causing traffic chaos.
There was an accident and I am sure the lights caused it, they were only turned on for the first time last night, probably to coincide with that festival which is still going tonight.
This was meant to be the last photo of the lights....
However I presume this is for Game of Thrones xmas.
This cat attacked me with a balloon as I crossed the road.
Then I got pissed on by a bear.
I officially declare Fukuyama to be the biggest department store in Hiroshima. It is much bigger than Asse across the road. The place really is called Asse.
Asse does however have a huge number of restaurants, including this okonomyaki floor.
I bypassed it and went to the other floor and had pasta.
Pasta seems to be one of the Japanese staples, you have Ramen, Tonkatsu (stuff deep frien in bread crumbs), Curry, Sushi and Pasta.
With the sheer number of pasta places, I thought I would give it a try, and it actually was pretty good. I chose the healthiest thing on their menu I think, avocado and prawn.
They generally have 2 categories, western style and japanese style. The western style is much as you would get in Australia but often with a raw egg on top.
The Japanese style normally introduces seaweed flakes, a scoop of mash potato or a hamburger pattie, or all of them together, plus snow crab, always snow crab.
What I really appreciated was the American hot sauce they provided.