One of the things which first comes to mind when thinking of Hiroshima is the local delicacy okonomiyaki and within minutes of arriving back in the city for the first time in 12 months we were tucking into some although it was just from the supermarket rather than the more-authentic experience in one of the city’s many restaurants.

After a long day travelling from Tokyo to Hiroshima I was hoping for a decent sleep but annoyingly I was awake very early the next morning. Being able to see such a lovely sunrise though was a nice bonus.

A lot of the time in Hiroshima was naturally devoted to the dogs with a lot of walking and playing each day so below is a collage of some of the best pictures.

A few years ago I went to the now-defunct pizza vending machine in Hiroshima where a hot instant pizza was served up (none of this frozen nonsense you can now get from such machines) but now the best I could locate was a nail varnish one inside a shopping mall!

On the 45 minute walk back to the apartment from that mall we passed by the interesting-looking WoodEgg building where my mother-in-law and I had an okonomiyaki cooking lesson way back in 2015.

One afternoon, I took the train to the eastern side of the city to embark on a little train adventure involving the often forgotten suspended railway known as Skyrail which will sadly be torn down by the end of 2023.

Back in the city after that I returned to a restaurant I first went to a year earlier to sample one of Japan’s cheapest meals. This time though I went for something a bit more expensive!!

The A-Bomb Dome is the symbol of the city and always a reminder about the devstating effects of the atomic bomb way back in 1945. That was my next port of call before I took the tram back home.

A bottle of refreshing Hiroshima cola was waiting for me there. I don’t think Coca Cola and Pepsi have too much to fear!

Yuki Onsen Yuki Lodge on the Minochi River was the destination for my father-in-law and I one day. I wasn’t expecting such a road trip in getting there and back!

When I left my in-law’s apartment one day I was just heading to Ono-ura station to see a nearby waterfall. It wasn’t something I was desperate to see but it was just something to do and a new place to explore. Only on the short train journey along the San-yo Line did I notice a pop culture cafe called bb-geek on Google Maps. This cafe, which is full of Star Wars and Predator props, turned out to be one of the highlights of my time in Hiroshima.

The waterfall (located behind Ogashira Shrine) did follow once I departed that cafe in really high spirits, and it turned out to be a lovely, calm area.

The waterfall itself was a pretty nice, secluded spot with only a few other people around but I have heard that it is a popular place for kids to play in when conditions are much warmer!

New Years Eve and New Years Day were mostly spent at home. As is customary in Japan we had toshi-koshi soba on the last day of 2022 and osechi on the first day of 2023.

On the morning of New Years Day I was quite surprised when my wife and mother-in-law said we were taking the dogs to the nearby You Me Town shopping mall where they could walk on the greenery behind the complex. January 1st is such a family day akin to Christmas Day in the UK so I naturally assumed pretty much everything was closed. Far from it as most of the shops and restaurants inside were open. Not only that but they were all busy too!

The following day was one that I had to myself, and it was a very early start as I took the train north for a couple of hours to see this quirky milk carton building.

Next up were a couple of abandoned stations on the former Sankō Line.

I may have been in the middle of nowhere in Hiroshima Prefecture but amazingly I bumped into a friend by chance at Miyoshi station and rode the train down to Hiroshima city with him and his family which was nice as we hadn’t seen each other for a few years!

Back in the city there were a couple of places for me to visit. Mitaki Temple was the first one where wabi-sabi style paths take you through a charming complex situated in a heavily forested valley on the side of Mount Mitaki. The name of the place is derived from the three (mi) waterfalls (taki) flowing within the grounds and the water is itself dedicated to the victims of the A-bomb on that fateful day in August, 1945.

Miyajimaguchi station is the gateway to the wonderful island of Miyajima and Itsukushima Shrine with its iconic floating torii gate but I was there to experience the other hugely popular thing to do there.

The only other thing of note to mention from our trip was my exercise challenge for walking up and down the 28-floor building. 12 months earlier I had only done this a few times so wanted to start earlier this time and being 6-7 kilos lighter this time resulted in some surprising efforts from the start.

I was delighted to finish on a high by setting personal best records for going both up (3:45 mins) and down (2:31 mins) on the final day. To have beaten those times the following day may have been quite tough so maybe it was best to leave Hiroshima then before my times started to get slower!

Click here to read ‘This Family-Owned Milk Carton Building Is Udderly Brilliant’

Click here to read ‘Feel The Force At This Hidden Pop Culture Cafe In Hiroshima’

Click here to read ‘Exploring The Remains Of A Former Railway Line In Hiroshima’

Click here to read ‘The Other Hugely Popular Thing To Do At Miyajimaguchi Station!’