Another long bus journey (4 1/2 hours) and we went straight to our hostel (K's House) in Hiroshima.

This time it was different, we had our first experience of a Japanese room ….. No bed, the floor was "tatami" matting (no shoes allowed) and a set of very precise instructions on how to roll the Futon out and how to properly dress it with the bed coverings. Dinner was again traditional, a local Hiroshima speciality called Okonomiyaki (easy for you to say). Basically mixed ingredients, topped with a savoury pancake and surface fried on a bar length hotplate - The finished meal was presented on your personal section of hotplate, along with a pair of chopsticks and a cutting tool (remarkably similar to a wallpaper scraper) ….. Care needed to be taken as regards where you put your hands or your beer (to avoid burning) - Probably the best meal in Japan so far.

Miyajima is an island reachable by tram and ferry from Hiroshima, which is famous for its giant "Torii Gate" (a traditional Japanese gate mostly found at the entrance of a shrine) which at high tide appears to be floating on the sea. On arrival, Dan picked up a map and was just reading a warning about the local deer eating personal items such as clothes or paper …. "be careful of your street map" when one of the aforementioned creatures sneaked up and ate the map out of his hand.

The island contained a famous viewpoint but guess what ….. It involved a three Kilometre mountain climb. Luckily this time there was a cable car, we compromised and rode up but walked down. The view from the top was beautiful on a clear day, unfortunately it was a cloudy day. We would have felt massively cheated had we climbed on foot, nevertheless the surroundings were nice and it was a break from the city.

Our dinner venue was called Koba selected from "The lonely Planet" described as "vibrant atmosphere" with rock music soundtrack ……. it was empty, we ate and left. On the way back we dropped into an Irish Bar, but after 5 minutes Heather spilt both pints of Guinness and we left - Not our night and time to go home.