Thurday 27 September 2007. Day 38. Hiroshima – Comfort Inn.

Lou still got a cold and chesty cough. Good nights sleep, have free breakfast, and leave to explore the A-Bomb (yep you guessed it we're now americans and can't say Atom) site and Peace Park. Some great views up the river as we head towards A-bomb dome, including many monuments decicated to the A-Bomb victims. As we come into the Peace Park, we come upon coach load after coachload of school children, on a school trip to the site, all dressed neatly in their identical little uniforms and coloured caps. It didn’t take long before the masses of kids spotted the strange foreigners and rushed over to request autographs on their school pads – either that or we were mistaken for some sort of celebrity couple! We soon realised that the attraction was simply down to us being foreigners, as we watched the same things happen to other western tourists!

We saw the buring flame of peace, which will only be extinguished when all countries have ended nuclear missile programmes, and went round the museum. Saw some very moving tales, pictures and accounts of the A Bomb and its after effects, including a step with a persons shadow burnt on to it, as well as before and after aerial views of Hiroshima.

We went to the Veggie café for a drink, but didn’t fancy the dubious “garden meat” burger for lunch, so went to Café Cuzco (run by a peruvian woman) for tacos and a lasagne. Did a spot of shopping, with Ieuan getting bored after 10 mins and demanding the hotel room key to go back to the room. Later we go to a 2nd hand bookshop and fill in a tourist survey for the owner, then go to Kinokuniya bookshop, before stopping for some delicious gelato at the Anderson hotel. Have tea at J’s café – beef curry and panini.