hiroshima-12-09-17

On landing in Hiroshima I quickly cleared customs (this was a very small airport and our plane was not close to full).

Already had Yen from previous trip so no need to exchange any money up front.    Went to info/bus booth and bought a ticket for the bus ride to Hiroshima city -- about an hour long drive.

It only costs about $13 US.    Bus showed up about 15 minutes later and I settled down and rested as we drove to town.

After arriving in town I could either walk to the hotel (about 10 minutes) or take a "city cable car".   I tried the latter but got confused as to which platform to use so ended up just walking.

Not a big deal as by the time I exited the station "tubes" I was already halfway to the hotel.

Checked in without incident and walked to the Okonomoyaki restaurant the Marty and Karen had raved about.

Here's the path I walked -- thank you "google maps" for providing the blue dot of "where you are" and the pin of "where you want to go".   All I had to do was match them up!

Found the restaurant -- something that I would never have been able to do without Marty and Karen's suggestion and google maps.   Doesn't look like it is even open from the outside unless you "know"

to look!

Went in and was seated at the counter (really there is just a counter running the length of the restaurant -- no tables!)    Ordered the "deluxe seafood okonomoyaki" and had a choice of eating it on a plate with chopsticks OR

on the heating grill in front of me (which ran the whole length of the counter) with a special "shovel".    As everyone else was doing the latter I opted for this method.

Here is a video of me going at it:

Needless to say it was an impressive hole-in-the-wall and the food was quite good.  I only made it about 5/8th of the way through my order and had to give up as I was just too full.

Went back to hotel and took a major nap -- BUT when I got to the hotel lobby I spotted a dessert counter and just HAD to pickup a piece of strawberry cream cake to eat in my room before my nap:

When I woke up I was not super hungry and thought that I should probably just go out for a sushi meal.    Checked by front desk and had the concierge call a few places for me -- it was Saturday night and the first three

said "no, full".   The fourth could take me but I had to agree to be done within about an hour and a half (not a problem for me!).   It was only about a 5 minute walk from the hotel to get to "near" the restaurant -- kind of in an alley

behind a main street.   Of course there were about 5 different little hole-in-the-walls there so I could not easily figure out which one was the Sushi place I had a reservation for.   The next door or two down was a 'garage' that had 

a guy manning the exit so I asked him and he was able to mime/point me to the correct door.

Once I entered it was a great experience.    Shoes off and put into a cubbyhole and gestured by mama-san to a seat at the sushi bar.    Very little english spoken but it did not matter.   They had an english mini-menu and I picked

the chefs dinner high end "set" so he could just do all the picking for me.   It was great!