This is a quickie which will test just how fast I can make my fingers fly over the keyboard, and whether or not (likely not) I can reduce the amount I talk...

Terribly awkward breakfast on my lonesome in my posh little ryokan, with lots of little bowls of unidentifiable tofu/pickley things...I ate quickly to remove myself from this socially difficult situation and swept up my belongings asap, to get myself off to Kyoto station and on the train to Hiroshima. Once again awed and amazed at how blimmin amazin these Japanese trains are - spacious, clean and DOT on time. So I travelled down from the heat of Kyoto through the backbone of Japan, where the ridged green hills are hugged by houses which make as much room as possible for the rice paddies which span the flatness in between the hills. Through the mist this made quite specatcular viewing...made all the more atmospheric by my chilling read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. I arrived Hiroshima station and yet again thrust myself into a new and entirely different transport system - this time, TRAMS! But successfully and quickly got myself to my youth hostel.

By this time it was drizzly grey rain, apt for a city where I was to learn of all the tragic history for which it was famous. I slopped through the rain, buying myself one of the cracking and cheap umbrellas they have here, and on to see the Peace Memorial Park and the site of the A-bomb dome. It is impossible to put into words how this made me feel, but I will do my best. Put it this way - history has never really moved me terribly much, and for this reason I dropped it far too early at aged 13. But walking round the museum which detailed the history of the atomic bomb, I was actually moved to tears. The details they give, scientific and historical, not to mention emotional and human, are enough to actually turn your stomach - including pieces of the skin, nails and clothing of the 180,000 plus victims of the bomb which fell on August 6th, 1945 (8.15am). I was first graphically walked through what happened on the day, then the effects on the buildings, and finally on the victims themselves. It has actually altered my view of history, and made me determined to learn more about the background behind the bombs. It was a horrifying memento of the acts that humans are capable of inflicting on each other.

I left the museum mid-afternoon feeling really quite sombre, and started off in the direction of Myajima, a significantly greater trip than I had realised when I started! I caught the tram, constantly looking over my shoulder at each stop, and finally gave up, as I realised that it was a 40 minute trip out of the city, and the last stop on the line. Then there was a ferry trip, and finally I arrived at the shrine itself, pictured in the blog introduction. It was fairly miserable and grey by this stage, not to mention soggy, so I said a quick hello to the tame deer, whizzed around the shrine (a beautiful bright red colour), ate one of their special sweets, and then headed homewards.

Back at the hostel I got friendly with some Spanish guys, and we went for sushi - hilarious experience with non-sushi eaters!

Time out.