Malaysia

The Petronas towers - one of the most famous landmarks in the world

Malaysia so far...We've only been in Malaysia a couple of days but so far, I've not had the greatest impression of the country. We started off crossing the border from Singapore by bus to Johor Bahru. We met a girl in South America who told us that she remembered crossing the border and being taken aback by the difference between the two countries as the bus drove over the bridge. You literally drive from everything being all squeaky clean, shiny and modern, to, well, more of a neglected developing city. 

View from our hostel balcony in Melaka

The good thing was, as sanitation standards went down, so did prices, and for a few pounds, we managed to navigate our way on and off several different buses, before finally ending up in Melaka, the place we had booked a hostel for the night. Queue bad experience number one. When we booked the hostel, they had asked us for an estimated time of arrival and I had just put down 10pm as a guess as I had no idea when we would arrive. Most hostels have someone on the reception 24/7 so it doesn't actually matter when you arrive. Not this one. We got out of the taxi at 7pm and knocked on the door and it seemed no one was in. There was a sign saying 'out to lunch'. Then, two German girls came to the door and said that the owner was out and they weren't allowed to let us in. However, after a bit of persuasion, they let us in to put our bags down and then told us to get straight back out and wait for the owner to come back. The German girls were leaving to go our for dinner and they did not want to leave us in the hostel alone. So, Jemma and I went out to a little Chinese place for dinner, came back an hour later, and still nobody was there, not even the German girls. After a while of knocking, a coy Chinese girl appeared at the door and told us to go away and that she was not allowed to let us in. A this point, Jemma was bursting for the toilet and pleaded with the girl just to let her in for one minute to use the bathroom. She even said the girl could keep her bag as an assurance. No can do – the girl shook her head and insisted that she could not let us in. It was 9.30pm at night by this point, and we just sat on the step outside the hostel and waited. In the end, we had to go to a cafe down the road and wait there. The cafe owner knew the hostel owner's number, so we used skype to call him. A few minutes later, he came and let us in, but not before demanding to know where our rucksacks were. We told him they were in the hall and we had put them there earlier. 'WHO LET YOU IN??' he said. Jemma just said that people had been going out as we arrived and had let us leave our big rucksacks in the lounge. He did not look happy and was actually a really scary man. We finally got to our room at about 10.30pm, and although it was nice enough, it had bed bugs. 

My poor leg covered in bedbug bites

I got terribly bitten all over my legs, arms and back and I really have nothing good to say about Melaka. We went on a boat cruise at night along the river, which was nice, but other than that, there was not much to the city. Its supposed to be a World Heritage sight, and maybe its just because we've been travelling so long that we've become blasé about these amazing sights (I hope not) but, Malaysia really isn't much to write home about.

After 2 days in Melaka, we took a bus to the capital city Kuala Lumpur (4 hours away) and checked into our hostel, which was quite nice. KL however, is not. I am actually really disappointed with KL. I was expecting a slightly downscaled version of Singapore, maybe a little rougher around the edges, but I was really expecting too much. There is not much to do here. Its quite dirty and its really not an impressive city. The most impressive thing is the famous Petronas towers, which are nice to photograph and there is a nice modern mall near bye where you can escape the unbearable humidity, but that's about it. One thing we did do in Melaka, was go to a chicken satay restaurant called Capital satay, where you buy a load of raw meat on skewers for about 20p per skewer and then dip it in the boiling hot satay sauce on the table to cook it. That was an interesting experience!

Cooking our own chicken in the satay pot

 Maybe I am not in a position to be impartial – during my time in KL, I have been covered in bedbug bites, suffered from a bad cold and had a migraine. Also, nowhere was ever going to compare to Singapore, was it? I had a down moment the other day thinking about it all, and realised that maybe Japan is to blame, perhaps Japan has spoiled me for life and no other countries will ever compare (except Singapore). I hope not. I am hopeful that Thailand will be infinitely better and now I am over my cold, I am trying to see the positives in Malaysia.

You can get a mega mac meal for £1.80!!

One positive is the cheap food. Although it could be seen as a negative too: Because its so cheap, we are buying double thus spending the same amount as in an expensive country and becoming fat in the process.

We have met a few nice people here though, including Amanda from Baltimore, who quit her job to go travelling and is writing a blog called 'Amanda abroad'. I have also met 3 other people who are digital nomads (they take their work with them as they travel the world). One is a journalist for a national newspaper in Norway, one edits paparazzi photos and the other does online marketing.

I have just realised I have not actually written much about what we have done here in KL. Mainly because we haven't done much. 

We have eaten a lot of Indian food, and today we went to some caves (Batu caves) where there is a Hindu shrine inside and lots of stray monkeys about pinching people's food. Tomorrow we are leaving for the Cameron highlands. Hopefully I will have something more positive to report about Malaysia from there.

For a few more photos of Malaysia, click here

Singapore part 2

2 meals for £2. Can't fault it.

Singapore was even better the second time round. We stayed in a nicer hostel and we knew where all the best food places were: we picked our hostel based on its vicinity to the nicest hawker market (Albert street, near Bugis). We basically gorged on food for the 3 days we were there. In addition to eating, we also went on a jungle walk called the tree top walk, where you walk for 4 hours through the jungle, including over a bridge that stretches over the top of the rainforest. We did this walk during a storm, despite the signs warning of lightening strikes (the bridge was metal). We saw lots of monkeys, including one that stole a girls unopened subway sandwich from her hands and ran away with it. We also went to Sentosa Island (a man-made island of fun),the Botanic gardens, Chinese and Japanese gardens. Other than that, we just relaxed and enjoyed being in the vibrant, clean, modern city that is Singapore. I bought a bargain pair of Havaiana flip flops after having lost the ones I bought in Brazil in Auckland. Our hostel owner was lovely and gave us lots of tips on what to do in Malaysia, including giving us a map of where to eat, so it looks like we are about to pile on more pounds as we move north.  

Last Few days in Tokyo

View of Tokyo (Lost in Translation hotel on left)

Our last few days in Tokyo were spent doing things we hadn't had chance to do the first time round. We visited the hotel where Lost in Translation was filmed and got a lift up the tower next to it for awesome views over Tokyo for free! We even saw Mount Fuji, which I was really happy about as I had wanted to go on a day trip there but we didn't have time. It was such a clear day, we say almost all of Tokyo, Mount Fuji and the surrounding mountains. The night before, we had paid to go up a different tower, but there was a typhoon and the visibility was very poor. We had walked for miles to find it and were starving by the time we got there. It was torrential rain (a typhoon) and we wanted to find a MOS burger, but in the end we were so hungry we ended up having a McDonald's. We calculated that during our time in Japan, ½ of all our meals have been burger-based. That is to say, we stayed in Japan 3 weeks, and ate 10 burger meals in that time (Maccas, Burger King or MOS burger).

Looks like NYC, but no, its Tokyo

On our second to last day, we intended to get up early to experience Tokyo fish market but we got there too late and all we saw was them closing down the stalls. So we decided instead to set out to find Joyopolis – a games world that Jemma had read about. It took us quite a while to get there, but we got to ride the monorail and saw a completely different side to Tokyo by the sea, which was nice. We eventually found Joyopolis, but it was closed, however, there was lots of other stuff to keep us entertained in the same area.

I love Japan

On our second to last night in Tokyo, we had a lovely leaving party with our friends, who treated us to a meal at a Japanese restaurant where they had traditional dancing and entertainment. It was absolutely the best night of my whole trip and I could not believe how lucky we were to have met such kind and welcoming people. They ordered so many different dishes for us to try, including chicken gizzard! They also ordered these big chickens that the waiter had to cut up with garden scissors and they bought us drinks all night. When the bill came at the end they insisted on paying. The entertainment was excellent, and everybody did a kind of conga dance around the restaurant. Words can't describe it so I have added in the video at the bottom of this page (more videos on my youtube channel). 

It was the best cultural experience ever and everyone was so lovely. At the end, one of our friends won the prize for best dancer and we all had to go up with her for a photo, at which point they told the whole restaurant about who we were (Yoshie's English friends she met in New Zealand). I have never experienced hospitality like it in my life. At the end of the meal, we were really sad to leave them, and they gave us a goodbye present (our own set of posh chopsticks). It was so cute. It really left us with such an amazing lasting impression of Japan.

More photos can be found here: Tokyo 2


But for now, one last photo of my favourite part of Tokyo, Shibuya crossing

Yokohama/ Tokyo – Japanese house parties and drunken karaoke

Japanese house party

We have just had probably the best 48 hours of our whole trip and to round it off I am typing this sat in my little capsule in our wonderful capsule hostel in Tokyo.

The fun started on Saturday night, when, after a long day travelling back to Tokyo from the Alps, we were met at the train station by our lovely friend Yoshie whom we met in New Zealand. She came to collect us to take us back to her sister's flat in Yokohama (just outside of Tokyo), where we were to spend the night. We got to the flat and were met at the door by a group of young, welcoming Japanese people (Yoshie's friends and family) who were all smiling and eager to meet us. As we walked through the door and took our shoes off, they were all taking photos of us and each one shook our hand in turn and said hello in English. Most of don't speak English, so practising with us that night was a big deal for them. We went into the lounge, where they had prepared a feast for us, with a low table and mats on the floor to sit on. It was really cute. Everything we had told Yoshie in NZ, she had remembered and they had tailored the meal exactly to our tastes. They had made pasta bake with two little flags in it (Japan and UK), a ginger pork dish, a cold pasta dish, and sushi (with no raw fish, because Yoshie had remembered that we weren't keen on 'law fish').  

Pasta bake

It was overwhelming. They kept the alcohol flowing all night (champagne, wine and beer) and they were the friendliest people I have ever met. We brought them a little present (as we were advised this is the custom in Japan). We gave them some cherry blossom sweets from Kyoto and they gave me a box of chocolates (Yoshie had remembered that I am chocolate mad) and they gave Jemma (or German, as they thought her name was) a Japanese fan. They were all so friendly and eager to practise their English. We felt really at ease because everybody was so laid back and friendly. I think Jemma had built it up a little in her head and was worried she might commit some cultural faux pas, but they were all so young and easy going, we really had nothing to worry about. We chatted and laughed the whole night, with new dishes and drinks being brought out all the time and at one point, they even brought out the ingredients for making sushi and let us have a go at making our own. It was a really brilliant night and we were stuffed by the end of it. At the end of the night, Yoshie's sister ran me an onsen, and I committed the only cultural error of the night (as far as we know), by having a bath in it and washing my hair, when it was actually meant to be shared by the whole house. We all laughed about it in the end, but I can just remember starting to wash my hair with shampoo in the bath and then remembering something I had read in the lonely planet about Japanese families having onsens and that you should never pull the plug. What I should have done was had a shower first and then got in the onsen, and then everyone else would have done the same. I think this is the biggest cultural difference between the UK and Japan! Jemma and I slept with Yoshie in the spare room on a traditional Tatami Japanese floor and some of the other friends also stayed the night.

The next day, we got up, had some hot chocolate/ tea and then they took us out to see Yokohama and to have sushi for brunch. They took us to the best sushi bar I have ever been to – it was so cheap and the conveyor belt was huge! I tried all kinds of sushi, including raw squid, which nearly made me sick, but I eventually managed to swallow it. Jemma was not so successful. 

Yokohama harbour

At the sushi restaurant

After brunch, we took a sightseeing boat across Yokohama harbour and Yoshie's brother-in-law kindly paid. We walked all around the harbour, looking at the big cruise ships that were docked there and watching the entertainment. It was like a much bigger version of Cardiff bay! We then stopped at a little park for coffee and took the train back to Yoshie's sister's flat, where we said our farewells, before heading back to Tokyo to meet our friends from Kyoto for a night out.

It took us about an hour to get across Tokyo to the hostel that we had booked on hostelworld. We booked it because it was surprisingly cheap for Tokyo, and I can now confirm, that you definitely get what you paid for. As soon as we saw it, I was doubtful. Not only was it a hefty train ride from the centre of Tokyo, but it also looked like a little shack from the outside. We were in such a rush to dump our bags and check-in before meeting our friends Emily and Sandra, that luckily I didn't have time to take it all in properly. The bedroom was the biggest disgrace of a bedroom I have ever seen in my life. It has to be seen to be believed! I would not put my dog in there! Luckily we had only booked for one night and I had visions of us coming in, numbed enough by alcohol not to be bothered by it, but my god, it was not fit for human living. I am sure there must be a law against squashing that many people into such a small space. The bunks were pushed so close together, you had to turn sideways to walk between them. There was no space for bags, and if you were unlucky enough to be on the 3^rd tier, you had to climb over 2 peoples heads (no ladders to get in). It was pure squalor and I am horrified that it has such high ratings on hostelworld. I think the owner must have dodgy dealings going on somewhere because there is not one single bad review on hostelworld! Suspiciously, it is also not listed on Trip advisor, which should cause some alarm bells to ring, but as we were literally just dropping our bags then racing out to see our friends, I didn't have time to think too much about it.

Worst hostel ever

We dropped our bags in the 'luggage room' (cupboard) and raced out to meet Emily and Sandra at an agreed place. The four of us then went to the best restaurant I have ever been to! An all you-can-drink Izakaya! The deal is, you sit at the table, and have a little computer screen, where you can order an unlimited number of drinks (any drink you want – alcohol, soft drink, milk shakes... you name it). You have the table for 3 hours and during this time, everyone also has to order and least two items of food off the menu. For this, you pay about £20! Incredible value! If this existed in the UK, it would go out of business on opening night, but as the Japanese can't drink much, these fantastic establishments exist all over Tokyo. We ordered a load of dishes to share: pizza, chips. Yakitori (chicken on skewers) etc. And we drank till we were merry. As Jemma put it, she drank a whiskey drink, she drank a lager drink, she drank a cider drink, she drank a vodka drink. I think she also drank every other drink on the menu, including to tropical Japanese varieties. I just stuck to wine and cocktails. 

At the Izakaya

By the end, we were very merry, and left the restaurant to go into the games arcade next door, where we played on Table Flip. A computer game, where the only aim is to flip a table in a restaurant so that the drinks go all over everybody! We then played some drumming games, and had our photos taken in one of those booths that Japanese girls love where you can add fake eyelashes and glasses etc to yourself. It was the most amazing fun ever. By this point, Jemma and Emily were very drunk and were keen on catching the last train back to the student area where Emily and Sandra live, to spend a couple more hours in a karaoke booth, and then we could crash for a few hours at theirs before catching an early train back to our hostel to check out. We found the karaoke booth, and again, it was pay a sum (~£22) and drink all you like for 2 hours whilst singing karaoke in the booth. It was one of the best nights out I have ever had in my life and I am so glad we got to experience a real Japanese karaoke booth. It really is a fun way to spend a night. After two hours of singing (or squawking), I wanted to carry on, but they were all tired, so we stumbled back to the student halls, where I slept on a mat on Sandra's floor and Jemma slept on Emily's floor. It was about 3am by the time we went to sleep. 

Photobooth fun

Karaoke

At 8am, we had to leave to catch a number of different trains back to our hostel. This was not the easiest of tasks on a hangover, in fact, if you knew what the Tokyo subway was like, you would probably find it like something out of a comedy sketch. 2 hours later(!) we finally got to the horrible hostel, where we scooped up our bags from where we had left them, used the toilet facilities, and then made a sharp exit. Another 2 hours later, we were at our new hostel, where we were told that check-in was not until 4pm. So we went to Burger king and then slept in the lounge, before checking into our cosy little, clean capsule dorm (same company as the excellent hostel we stayed in in Kyoto). What a fantastic 48 hours.  

New cool capsule hostel in Tokyo

Photos: Best 48 hours ever

The Japanese Alps – snow monkeys and naked baths

We planned a visit to the Japanese Alps into our itinerary after Jemma's brother told us we had to see them. Our first stop was Nagano, which was a little out of the way, and took us a while to get to from Kyoto. We arrived at Nagano station in the pouring rain and walked for about half an hour without finding the hostel. In the end, I waited in a bank with the rucksacks whilst Jemma went off to try and find it. When she came back 40 minutes later, soaking wet, she still had not found it but had a good idea of where it might be. Before we set off on a trek to find it, we saw a MOSBurger (now my favourite fast food chain ever) and went there for tea. I had a curry sauce burger. We eventually found the hostel, 1166, tucked away down a little side street and the owner let us in. It was basically someone's house. The young girl (32) had set the house up as a hostel and she had great reviews on hostelworld because of how helpful she is with planning your travels. I t was a typical Japanese style house, with one western toilet and one shower. It also had a Japanese toilet. The dorms had bunks but the mattresses, were paper thin (standard in Japan) and the pillow was terrible. Needless to say I didn't get the best night's sleep that night and I was freezing. When I needed the toilet, I had to creep down the narrow staircase to the western toilet next to the kitchen. The good thing about the hostel was that she cooked us a typical Japanese dinner for £5 (hot pot) and we sat round the table with the other guests from Belgium, Singapore, Germany and Japan and learnt about Japanese culture from the owner and her friend. They showed us a funny clip on youtube about how to eat sushi (clip) and answered all of our questions. We got along quite well with the other guests and the owner even gave us free alcohol (sake and wine). Jemma and the German boy went out to buy some suntory whisky (as featured in Lost in Translation) and they ended up drinking the whole bottle between them. As there was only one shower, I had to wait about 45 mins for our Japanese room mate (who looked about 8!) to finish in the shower before I could go in.

We went to bed at midnight, and set our alarm for 6am, ready to get up for a trip to see the snow monkeys the next day.

Hot pot night at the hostel in Nagano

The next day we got up at 6am and caught a train to the mountains and then a bus. By 10am, after having walked up a snowy mountainside and taken in the lovely views, we eventually made it to the monkey park, which is basically a clearing in the forest with a hot spring in it where the monkeys bathe! It is amazing to see the monkeys running around in their natural habitat. I had never heard of monkeys that live in the snow before. There are hundreds of them and they can get quite lively, fighting with each other and chasing each other about. There were babies and adults and lots of monkeys in the onsen (hot spring) taking a bath. I was quite scared at some points as we were warned not to look them in the eyes otherwise they might attack. We didn't witness any attacks whilst we were there but the Belgian girl told us that one had leapt out of the water to go for her when she was there.

One of the baby monkeys

After a couple of hours looking at the monkeys and taking pictures, we headed back down the mountain to do something we had been told we must do whilst in Japan: take an onsen.

An onsen is a hot spring where Japanese people bathe naked: (click for description of onsen)

We were first told about this by a British girl in Fiji who raved over it and reckoned it was no problem getting naked once you were there because the Japanese didn't bat an eyelid. The same thoughts were echoed by the Belgian couple in our hostel the night before. I however, was not so sure. Europeans don't seem to understand the British fear of getting naked, in fact they laughed at me when I told them what a big thing it was for me to do. Even typing this now, I am cringing thinking back to it. But hey, if Lonely Planet says you've got to do it, you've got to do it.

It's basically a public bath, where you go in, strip off (no towels allowed – we were told off in Japanese by an old woman when we tried to slip into the bathing area with our towels around us). Before you get in, you have to sit in a row with a load of naked Japanese women and wash yourself with the soap and shampoo provided. There is a bucket that you have to fill with hot water and then pour it over yourself. Then, you are allowed to get into the bath, which is usually outside, naked. It was quite a traumatic experience for me personally as I am very modest. A lot of people who do it (i.e. the Brits in Fiji) come out raving about it saying how great it is, but I'd rather just get in a jacuzzi with my batha on. Anyway, I've done it now, so nobody can say that I'm not embracing Japanese culture!

A bit like the onsen we went in

After the onsen, we got the train back to Nagano and had another MOSBurger. Then we went for our daily trip to Seven Eleven (I now, sadly, sing the theme tune as we walk in). We decided to be adventurous and bought some Tomato chocolate. Yes, that's right, tomato flavoured chocolate! How could I fail to like it when it combines my two favourite things?? Chocolate and tomoato sauce?? It was disgusting. But, I'm glad we tried it.

That night I was really tired so I stayed in next to the fire, whilst Jemma went our drinking with some Aussies from our dorm. Again, I had another terrible, freezing nights sleep on the cold, hard bed and woke up ready to get out and get to a new comfortable hostel.

Our next destination was Hakuba, which, according to Jemma's brother is 'the best place in the world and she would bring shame upon her family if she didn't go there'. You're meant to go there to ski and we did want to do this, however due to poor planning, we realised that a)we wouldn't have enough time to ski as we had only booked one night there and b) I wasn't actually insured for skiing.

Never mind, we still set off, on the 3 hour journey to get there and got there in the late evening, leaving us just enough time to chill out in the lovely, modern, hostel/chalet and do our washing. After I had pressed start on the washing machine, with all of our clothes in, except the t shirt and shorts we were wearing, I read a sign that said the dryer took 2 hours, so our plans to go out for dinner were scuppered. Luckily the hostel had a good stock of ready made curry meals in boxes so we made ourselves one of those and relaxed in the cosy lounge. We both said we would have loved to have stayed longer in Hakuba and actually go skiing as it is such a nice place, however, we had to leave the next morning as our friend Yoshie from New Zealand, had contacted us out of the blue and offered us a bed for the night. We were very keen on taking up her offer and are now currently on a train, making our way to Yoshie's sister's house in Yokohama (near Tokyo) where we will stay for a night and experience a typical Japanese family home!

For many more pictures of monkeys and snowy mountains, please click here: Japanese Alps

The Hunt for Kobe Beef...

When we left Hiroshima, we went back to Kyoto for one night as we intended to see the Golden Pavillion. We got back too late to see it however, and decided, on a whim (Jemma's idea), to go to Kobe to try and taste some Kobe beef. For anyone that doesn't know, Kobe beef is very famous for being the most delicious, expensive beef in the world. According to folk law, they massage the cows and feed them beer, which is why the beef tastes so delicious. According to Lonely Planet, once you have tasted Kobe beef, you will be spoilt for life, and normal beef will never taste the same again. Having read in the Lonely Planet guide book, that we could get hold of some of this world famous beef for the small price of £17, we set off at 6pm on a train to Kobe, giving ourselves just a few hours to find the restaurant, eat the beef and make it back to Kyoto on the last train at 10.00pm. We got to Kobe as planned, caught another train into the city centre, and then got completely lost trying to follow the Lonely Planet's directions. At one point, we were even asked by a group of Japanese men to join them in their footspa they were having in the middle of the city centre. We looked around for ages, asking for directions and being helped by random expats who spoke Japanese and English. We thought we would have to give up (time was running out and we would miss our last train if we ate any later), when I approached a florist and asked in my best Japanese if she knew where the restaurant was 'sumimasen.... doko deska.... <points at guide book>.'

Luckily, she knew and exclaimed 'ahhhh steakhouse!' 'Hai! Steakhouse!' We repeated merrily. I had been worried that the restaurant would be a bit too luxurious for two scruffy travellers, but a steakhouse sounded just up my street. I pictured myself having a nice cheap chunk of kobe beef with some chips on the side and maybe some peppercorn sauce. After all, the Lonely Planet had said that meals ranged from just 2000 yen ( around £17).

We took an elevator up to the restaurant on the 8^th floor and I realised straight away how very wrong

I was. A waiter approached us and took our jackets (i.e. fleece hoodies) and then led us to our seats, amongst the hoity toity clientèle. I was too embarrassed to look at anyone, as I sat down and wiped my hands with the hot towel he passed us. I let Jemma open the menu first and interpret the prices. She went pale and looked as though she would have a heart attack. The cheapest thing on the menu, which by the way, wasn't Kobe beef, was 14,000 yen (aka £100+)! The cheapest thing, a little starter, was over £100!! To have actual Kobe beef you were looking at around £150 for a small portion on its own, without sides! I looked at Jemma, wondering if she would go through with it and order something out of sheer politeness/ embarrassment. We both knew we could not justify wiping a week's worth of budget for South East Asia out on one decadent meal. We politely made our apologies, and scurried out of the restaurant, hanging our heads in shame as we waited for the lift to take us down. We made our way back to Kyoto and bought a pot noodle from the 7/11 for tea, with Jemma ranting along the way about how she would write a strongly worded letter to Lonely Planet for misleading her into thinking that she could actually afford Kobe beef!

Hiroshima

One of the only buildings left standing after the bomb

Memorial to the lost children

Hiroshima was a very different experience to anywhere else in Japan and it was really worth visiting. We arrived in the afternoon and headed straight out to the A-bomb dome, memorial park and peace museum. The first thing you see in the park is the shell of an old building that was one of the only things left standing when the Americans dropped the atomic bomb Enola Gay on Hiroshima on 6^th August 1945. The Japanese have conserved the bones of the building so you can still make out its structure. It is absolutely incredible that it stood up against the blast and the reason given for this is that the atomic bomb was dropped directly above the building which meant as the blast radiated outwards, it was able to withstand the pressure. The whole of the rest of the city was totally flattened and wiped out with the blast and radiation. As you walk around the park, the next thing you see is the memorial to the lost children with thousands of origami cranes hanging in a glass cabinet that have been sent in from all around the world. Further along, there is a statue with a flame inside it that represents the desire for the world to be free of nuclear weapons. The flame was lit by a survivor from the blast who found a flame in the remains of his uncle's house and carried the flame to where it stands today. On the memorial, it is written that the flame will remain lit until every last atomic weapon is gone from the world. 

A child's charred lunch box

After the park, we went to the peace museum, giving ourselves 2 hours to look around until it closed. We really underestimated the amount of time we would need. The museum was excellent, with so much detail on Hiroshima, before and after the bomb was dropped. Some of the exhibits inside included letters from Einstein to president Roosevelt, letters from the mayor of Hiroshima to Barak Obama asking him to stop testing nuclear weapons, models of what Hiroshima looked like before and after the blast, and a whole section on nuclear weapons today and the potential threats. The most harrowing part of the museum however, was the section on the victims, where you could read the stories of people who had been killed instantly in the blast and of those who had been killed many years later due to the effects of radiation. Exhibits included an old lunch box with charred food inside it, people's hair that had fallen out, and ceramic roof tiles that had melted in the extreme heat.  The most touching story of all, was of a 9 year old girl who had been 2 years old when the bomb was dropped. Seven years later she developed leukaemia and was taken into hospital. She had read that folding paper cranes brings good luck and she believed that if she could fold 1000 cranes she would survive. Sadly, she didn't get her wish and her death sparked a demand for a memorial for all of the children affected by the bomb to be built. In the museum you can see the cranes that she folded. They are absolutely minuscule and it is difficult to imagine how she folded them. Apparently she used a pin to fold them as they got smaller and smaller because she believed that the more intricate they were, the more chance she would have that her wish would come true. 

I left the museum quite depressed, and am still a little depressed typing this. However, it gave us some perspective on little things that we had been arguing about the day before and really brought it home to us just what a tragedy the dropping of the bomb over Hiroshima was. You can't appreciate until you see it, just how many lives it affected in so many ways; not just on the day it was dropped, but years later, with people living the rest of their lives in constant fear of what effects the radiation would have on them. I would say that if you visit Japan, you should definitely try to get down to Hiroshima and learn about this important part of modern history.

We didn't spend all of our time in Hirsohima visiting monuments related to the A-Bomb. Hiroshima is also famous for a shrine at Miraynma that stands in the ocean. It is one of the most famous views in Japan. We took a ferry over to go and see it, and once again there were hundreds of deer scattered about. Unfortunately, we got there at low tide so most of the shrine was not submerged in the sea but had tourists walking underneath it, pushing money into the cracks. Nevertheless, it was still a sight to behold and it was set amongst the stunning backdrop of mountains and sea. I said to Jemma that I thought the landscape was more impressive than similar landscapes that we had paid a lot of money to see in New Zealand. We didn't pay any money in Japan to see Miraynma.  

At night, we went on a hunt for a restaurant that had been recommended in the guide book that Jemma desperately wanted to try. It served Hiroshima's speciality dish, Okonamia, Okonamia are similar to pancakes, and at the restaurant we went to, they make them infront of you on a hot plate. They fill them with beansprouts, noodles and fish and then crack an egg on top. For the final touch, they pour a generous helping of special sauce. 

 Unfortunately for me, I liked everything but the sauce and the green nori powder they sprinkle inside them, which meant I just had to pick out the noodles and Jemma had to eat the rest. It was still a great experience though to eat in such a traditional eatery and have the food made in front of you (even if the woman who made them did have a cold and kept wiping her nose with her hand!). 

Hiroshima photos