Sumimasen, read this!

We travelled by Skinkansen again (I'm not complaining) from Kyoto to Hiroshima, we arrived in the evening and kicked off the night with Okonomiyaki; a sort of pancake-kebab type thing which should not work, but does, the fun part was watching them cook it right in front of you. After that we rented out a karaoke room with all you can drink, being a shy boy I wasn't really planning on singing but with the promise of hot sake on its way I took to the mike and sang 'Don't Stop Me Now' with Gavin, I loved it so much I hogged the mike a couple of songs later and sang 'My Life Would Suck Without You' (I LOVE THAT SONG) practically solo! I was terrible. I think karaoke would be so much fun to do with locals, maybe getting them to sing English songs and me Japanese, I may try to organize that next week :D I must say hot sake is a lot nicer than cold sake, I was saying it wasn't affecting me much given that it's about 70% but almost immediately after that it hit me hard, hard enough for me to agree to find a pub with a few others. It was fun laughing at the cultural differences between us and getting to know them more, especially one who's a huge fan of Naruto, so much so that she wanted to lock herself in her room and watch it live.

Needless to say I slept very easy that night and in the morning we took an excursion to Miyajima island, we journey'd there by ferry and passed the famous floating Torii gate. It's a remarkably beautiful place, there are a lot of tame, wild deer roaming about who can't seem to get enough of eating peoples' maps. We walked through the villages and to the top of a hill where there are some stunning temples and gardens - probably the best I've seen so far.

After heading back to Hiroshima we visited the Peace Memorial Park, I became very emotional when listening to some children sing in front of the memorial dedicated to Sadako Sasaki. It was really interesting learning in the Museum, for me particularly watching some interviews of survivors. As I looked at some clothes remains that were found after the bomb a young girl near me started to cry, she turned to hug her friend and sobbed into her shoulder. I signed the visitors' book, leaving a wish for Hiroshima.

Lee-san