The number of times I’ve now visited Hiroshima is something I’ve long lost count of but I do know that this was actually our first trip in the summer time for seven years! With my wife working that day in mid-August, it was my job to take our dog on the Shinkansen (bullet train) in the daytime (my wife would arrive at night) which wasn’t actually too bad as he seems to travel a lot better when with just one of us!

It certainly wasn’t the ideal start though as on arrival at my in-law’s apartment there was no answer despite them knowing my expected time of arrival! Likewise for when I phoned my mother-in-law! Subsequently, we went to a nearby park to get some water and kill time but with temperatures in the high 30s it really wasn’t ideal. About an hour later though I tried again at the apartment and thankfully there was an answer this time. They had been asleep!

The first two days were both spent in the neighbouring prefecture of Yamaguchi on a couple of separate trips with the highlight for me being my trip to see Renofa Yamaguchi play an entertaining 4-3 J2 match at a stadium I’d never been to. The national holiday, known as Mountain Day, saw me venture out on my own in the afternoon and evening to Hiroshima city centre starting off with a very local retro game centre and candy store! More details here.

From there I walked on to the splendour that is Edion Peace Wing; the 25,000 seater stadium sitting on the bank of the river running through the city centre. The architectural wonder became the new home of J1 side Sanfrecce Hiroshima at the start of this year. I really wanted to see a match at this stadium but sadly their home game against Cerezo Osaka was sold out.

Annoyingly, Sanfrecce don’t use the same ticketing websites for selling tickets as all the other J1 League teams. They have their own system of selling tickets which was so difficult to register for, and by the time they went on general sale they had all gone. It must be great to have a full stadium but maybe they could have made it a bit bigger to allow for more  growth.

That new stadium is located very close to Hiroshima-jo castle so I took a look at that fine structure from across the river which is perhaps the most picturesque view of it.

The walk to my next place took me past a giant kannon statue which I’d never noticed before. It was built in 1978 as a work of art for peace.

Next was an early dinner at Masui which still had the Covid protection screens in place.

This restaurant has become something of a regular haunt for me on my last few trips into the city centre which is an area I don’t actually go to so often. Masui serves up some fine and basic food at a very cheap price although there had been a whopping 50 yen price increase since my previous visit at the end of 2022!

My return to the Mazda Zoom Zoom Stadium to watch Hiroshima Carp was my main event of the day and eventually followed after a very slow bus journey due to the heavy traffic at that time of the day.

It was my first time to visit this baseball stadium in nine years and it was a successful evening for my team in incredibly hot and sweaty conditions. More details here.

Our final day in Hiroshima began at On-daki waterfalls in Hatsukaichi. This was a popular place for families to relax and cool off from the ridiculously hot summer climate.

After that, we walked on in the heat down the road to bb_geek after that which is a hidden pop culture cafe I found by complete accident a couple of years ago. Even though my mother-in-law’s never seen Star Wars she has seen Predator (also exhibited a fair bit in this place) as they watched that as a family back when it was originally released. She still enjoyed getting out of the house and this fantastic cafe did make her feel alive. The food makes it all worthwhile anyway even without any interest in the movie exhibits on display.

Spending time with the dogs is actually what takes up a lot of our time on these trips as they don’t get to see each other too often. Their relationship has certainly improved since the first time they met, and they now get on fine and respectfully give one another space.  Taking them to a local secluded beach-of-sorts is always good fun but one of them certainly didn’t want to leave when it was time to head home!

Both dogs seem to be rather fond of one of the tiny beds!

Here are some more pictures of the dogs in various locations over the course of the trip.

Staying on the top floor of an apartment block for our first night offered some amazing views when we woke up on the first morning.

Our time in Hiroshima was slightly shorter than usual. Still, five nights is more than most tourists ever spend in this amazing city. The reason for spending less time there was that we were moving on to Kyoto to stay with my brother-in-law’s family for three nights.

Click here to read ‘Watching My Baseball Team At Home For The First Time In 9 Years!’

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Click here to read ‘8 Days In Hiroshima: A Milk Carton Building, A Star Wars Cafe, Abandoned Stations, Snowy Hot Springs, Japan’s Best Value Meal, Train Trips, Waterfalls, Boat Race, Family Time & More!’

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