Day 2 - Kochi to Hiroshima
Kim and Phil had a traditional breakfast which in many ways was similar to a traditional dinner - more pickles, fish and rice.
With the train to Okayama and then onto Hiroshima due to leave at 12:08 (precisely) we had time for a wash and shopping. Phil decided we'd try the Onsen - a Japanese style of communal wash room and spa. Amazing and sorry there are no photos. I guess you can understand why. This Onsen is part of the hotel and is considered one of the best in the city. It had about 20 small cubicles no more than a 1.5m high and a 1.0m wide and deep. First collected a basket from the entry room and were supposed to undress placing your clothes into the basket. You then moved to the cubicles and sat on an overturn bucket with a handheld shower to wash down. Once clean you hop into a huge shallow spa at 42C - so nice. Kim and Bec got to sit in one outside. The male and female Onsens are separate although Bec and Kim did have an old man in there's until he was asked to leave.
After dressing and checkout we walked to the shops and cruised the Obamachi again.
Back to the hotel and off to the train for the trip to Hiroshima via Okayama. Of course in Okayama we picked up another nice iced cappucino.
Japanese Breakfast / Train to Okayama / Shinkansen "Bullet Train"
Okonomoyaki in Hiroshima / Our Chef
The Shinkansens are just so amazing. I'm sure I'm going to say that several times in this journal. Clean, fast and so punctual.
The trip to Hiroshima was as expected smooth and fast. The New Hiroden Hotel was close to the station so only a short walk. With a quick check in we took at quick walk past the station to try a double sided pancake filled with red bean paste then hit the local department store - Fujika (?). Department stores across Japan are so consistent - basement has food hall, 1 floor (ground floor) has womens fashion and cosmetics as does the second, mens on the third then electronics on the fourth - it varies from their but basically the top floor has restaurants.
We spent a lot of time in the food hall and tried plenty of the samples. A traveller could easily feast on the samples and thereby never need to buy dinner or lunch. The European style bakery was a big hit and again a consistent item in all the future department stores. We established a routine of buying breakfast from the bakery the night before.
For dinner that night we stopped at an Okonomoyaki bar at the top of the department store. Cool!!. Okonomoyaki is a local Hiroshima speciality. It's basically a thin pancake topped with fried noodles and your selection of toppings - green onion, pork, chicken, bean sprouts, cabbage, stacks of stuff. It's all cooked on a hot plate in front of you like Teppanyaki and sliced like a pizza. Really nice and something to try at home. The Kirin beer was also really nice.
After gelatos from another little shop at the top of the store it was a short walk back to the hotel to watch the Japanese Baseball on TV and to sleep.