Thursday 4th April

Went to see the Hiroshima Peace Park & crossed the river to see the domed building which sat right under the hypocentre but miraculously, although all the occupants were killed the shell of the structure survived the first Atom bomb dropped on 6th August 1945 at 8.15am. From there we walked to the museum & a sobering experience it was, particularly the interviews with survivors.

Then we drove east to Kurashiki to visit a lovely old precinct of the merchants of the town which was the centre of the textile industry in the late 1800s. The houses & shops are a mixture of traditional Japanese & a strange form of mock European buildings which are now filled with shops selling various foods & handicrafts. d*** had a fine octopus & green onion mixture in a form of batter fried & served on a stick, for lunch. We also bought some dried peaches which we had on the coach.

Then we drove further east towards Osaka & visited Himeji Castle, a huge moated complex dating back to 1346 & modified at various times since. It is a stunning example of Japanese castle building although the stonework doesn't compare to that in Kyoto. The woodwork of the keep structure is amazing particularly the design of locking joints on beams. It took us a full 2 hours & we still didn't see all of the complex. Walking back from the keep, the PA system played an unusual form of Auld Lang Syne on, presumably Japanese, bells

Finally, at 5pm we went on to Osaka to our hotel having dropped off a group for a Kobe beef dinner. We walked across the road & had a great feed of green onion omelette cooked in front of us in a small café. It was delicious & went down well with a couple of beers.