Japanese rail is a wonderful thing. Bullet trains that can take you from one side of the country to the other at twice the speed you can travel round Europe. Men that give you little slips to hand to your employer if the train is delayed, because train delays are so unheard of in Japan. And the JR rail pass, only available to foreigners, and bought outside of the country, but a little passport to explore as much of Japan as you can fit in to seven days.

The bullet train - or shinkansen - to Hiroshima looks a bit like something out of a science fiction film. Not least because the high speed railways were built in the period after World War 2, so in the cities they have their own tracks, mostly raised two or three stories above the roads and local railways. We didn't really have any major plans when we got to Hiroshima, our first of three 3 night stops around central Japan, but when we arrived there was a baseball game starting in a couple of hours so we decided to go to that.

The Hiroshima Carps were set up in the aftermath of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima in order to help rebuild morale in the city. Although they aren't massively successful, they are still well supported and there were plenty of people there despite it being only a Wednesday night game against Yokohama. The Carps are also the only team in the Japanese baseball league who don't have corporate sponsorship for their kit, although they play at the Mazda Zoom Zoom stadium.

The Carps won the game convincingly, but we spent most of the game watching the crowd. Everything they did was organised and well behaved. When a player got to first base they clapped (using pre bought clappy sticks) in time. When someone scored a home run, there was a song with clapping and dance routine that everyone performed in time. It was a little odd, not least when after the seventh inning almost everyone in the home end blew up giant pink long balloons then set them off into the air. It was like no sporting event we had been to because although the crowd were dedicated Carp fans, there was no passion or spontaneity, just organised controlled fun.

After a surprisingly quiet night at the Carp game we were up early the next day to take the (free) train and (free) ferry to Miyajima , home of a famous 'floating' shrine. The shrine at Miyajima is pretty old by Japanese standards - it was first build in 593, then rebuilt as it is today in 1196. It's one of the most photographed spots in Japan but to see it in all its glory you need to be there for high tide, otherwise it just looks like a shrine in some mud which is far less impressive. Despite the early hour we got there just as a traditional Japanese wedding was finishing and the bride and groom were posing for pictures near the shrine. Bizarrely an old western tourist hung around in the background of all their photos until they gave up and invited him to have his picture taken with them (which he did, making them all pose in the traditional Japanese way - V sign aloft). We took the cable car to the top of the island where there is a cluster of other temples and shrines, before walking the 5km back downhill to the main town. My hamstrings still hurt now.

That night our hostel was having a 'curry party'…. Well there was no way Jon was missing that. All you can eat curry and a free beer for 300 ¥ (£2.30). Japanese people have delicate tastes though and curry is more like an English stew than a vindaloo but it was still nice to chat to the other hostel guests as well as locals who come to these events to practise their English. A small group of us ended up going for an authentic local karaoke experience at Billy the Kid karaoke. Looking around at the different rooms its hard to believe that the same nation that brought karaoke to the mainstream is the same one that will only clap in time at a sporting event. Our host for the night was Ken, a golf teacher from Tokyo who was in Hiroshima for a night for reasons that never really became that clear. Ken likes karaoke a lot, and with such an enthusiastic host (and me in the room) it's easy to see how one hour karaoke became two, and we didn't get back to the hostel until 3am.

Feeling fresh the next morning we had arranged to go to the Mazda factory for a tour in English. Sometimes I get these kind of ideas. In this case it wasn't because I like Mazda (in fact I used to turn the TV over when that damn 'Zoom Zoom' advert came on), or even cars, but because my inner business studies geek wanted to see a Japanese manufacturing factory in action. I was not disappointed. Shortly after arriving at the head office we were put on a bus and taken to the museum which was 15 minutes away. It took 15 minutes to drive between bits of the factory - there was even a flyover / bridge over the river (which is apparently 'one of' the largest corporate owned bridges in the world - which seems like a very specific claim to fame, but still). The factory is on a site over 400 acres in size. We had a very nice English speaking guide who sat us down and gave us a lecture on Mazda and their cars - including an explanation of what they mean by 'Zoom Zoom'…

"Inspriring driving experience" offered with full of creativity and innovation to the people who keep remembering the excitement of zooming joy they felt in their childhood'

Looks like even the great Japanese manufacturing industry has been got at by corporate strategists / PR bulls***ters. I'd like to think that maybe some of the meaning got lost in translation, but sadly that probably isn't the case.

A lot of people who do the tour probably are interested in cars, so there was a lot of time to look at classic Mazda's (most of which were painted disturbing shades of fluorescent green) current Mazda's and the Mazda's of the future. One such car had weird lines cut into the roof which we were told collect and filter rainwater, which is then used to fill a water bottle next to the drivers seat. Another showed a dashboard where you could control household appliance from your car - turn on the oven to roast your chicken for dinner, and as you pull into the driveway switch the kettle on for your cup of tea. I like the idea that Japanese R&D scientists are all sitting in a room brainstorming how to distinguish their cars of the future and this is what the finest minds in the business came up with.

Anyway, aside from the sheer size of the factory - and the workers dorms for single men who live, eat and sleep here - the highlight of the tour was the viewing the actual production line. They were finishing Mazda's in front of our very eyes. And in order to maximise efficiencies, much of the work is done by robots. Window panels - fitted by robots. Painting - robots. Welding - robots. Watching the robots working alongside the factory staff was amazing, if a little scary. Maybe iRobot isn't that far fetched after all…

Finally, no trip to Hiroshima would be complete without a trip to the the A Bomb memorial and the peace museum. The events of August 1945, which are claimed to have brought about the end of World War 2, are part of standard secondary school history syllabus around the world. For me though it wasn't until I was actually in Hiroshima and faced with the effects of the bomb that I realised just how devastating the assault on Japan was, and how complicated a story it is.

The atomic bomb, 'Little Boy' detonated 600 metres in the air at 8.15am on 6th August, and wiped out most of the buildings surrounding the epicentre. However one building, an old municipal centre with a domed roof, survived the blast and now stands as a memorial to the events of that day. The area surrounding the dome, which was once the residential and entertainment centre of Hiroshima, was wiped out and eventually tuned into a park where the Peace Museum stands. There's also a victims memorial centre which lists the details of the victims of the bomb and those who have died in subsequent years.

The whole experience was extremely thought provoking, and had Jon and I in a heated debate for most of the afternoon about what is and isn't acceptable in a war. For the last 50 years every time a country conducts a nuclear test, the Mayor of Hiroshima writes to them on behalf of the citizens of Hiroshima to condemn their actions. There are over 100 letters on display in the Peace Museum, each one individually written - mostly these days to the US - and each new Mayor pledges to continue to do this until there are no nuclear weapons left in the world. Seeing the impact of the A Bomb had on this town, it's not hard to see why they feel compelled to do this.

I'm glad we did the Peace Museum last as so many people must just come to town to see that, and leave thinking that this defines Hiroshima. Whilst the terrible events of August 1945 will forever be associated with Hiroshima there is so much more to the city than that tragedy. In fact we think what the city should be noted for is how it has rebuilt itself to become the vibrant place it is today, and an international centre whose residents are focussed on the importance of peace, rather than being defined by the destruction of those terrible events of August 1945.