Hiroshima

A name seared in our psyche since childhood, this had always been on our list of must visit places and we eagerly used the opportunity to meet the Ikegami family and get some answers to questions that had been accumulating since we arrived in Japan.

Jackie picked us up from the station and dropped us off at the Peace Park for some fact finding and solemn contemplation on the horrors of war. Later, we wandered through Hiroshima Castle grounds and met up with Jackie, Mairie and later Yaz, in the Shukkeien Garden in time for some excellent sake whilst sitting under flood lit cherry blossom. A Japanese table top barbecue for dinner in a small local restaurant that looked like a workman’s hut from the outside and wasn’t the sort of place most tourists would find themselves eating. We avoided some of the more exotic animal body parts that were on offer and made do with strips of beef steak, some very fatty pork belly and some tongue. All tasted great after we cremated them on our table top grill, and the beer helped us forget that we were sitting at a table 8 inches off the floor. A short walk home to the Ikegami residence helped ease aching joints.