w00kie’s ramblings

2 weeks ago I went to Hiroshima for the weekend with my girlfriend. We had dinner (and innumerable drinks) with a friend of hers on Saturday night in the 本通 area at what must be the restaurant with the most perfect レバー焼き鳥 I've ever tasted.

Anyways, I received as omiyage the following which made me laugh a lot:

It's a set of senbei rice-crackers inscribed with examples of 広島弁, the local Hiroshima dialect. Whenever we're in Hiroshima, my girlfriend reverts to her roots and drops the Tokyo accent she acquired, especially when she's with her high-school friends. I'm usually totally lost...

So I'm back from Hiroshima as you must have seen in the little Twitter column on the right. Had good fun with the girlfriend, here's a quick roundup:

Friday - arrived at 4PM, saw Spiderman 3 (was kinda lame), ate Italian
Saturday - went to Iwakuni to see the 錦帯橋, nice bridge, ate yakitori and drank 日本酒 in an izakaya near 本通

Sunday - picnic by the riverside with homemade bento from Aiko's mother, dinner with family for Mother's Day, ate stuffed duck neck (French food I received last week)
Monday - walked around 平和公園 and Namiki-dori all afternoon, my flight was late so I missed the last train home and had to sleep in Tokyo

I'm leaving in 20 minutes for Hiroshima to see my girlfriend. I'll be there until Monday night and will get back to work on Tuesday morning.

With the nice weather, I'm hoping we'll get to make a nice picnic next to one of the many rivers in Hiroshima. I'll try not to catch the flu this time...

One of the train lines in Hiroshima is called the ASTRAM.

The name アストラム comes from あす meaning "tomorrow" and トラム which is tram in katakana. I was thinking of another theory but my girlfriend didn't find it that funny... :)

me: It's the ASS-TRAM!!! *grins stupidly*
愛子: Don't make fun of my city!

I'm back home, in good old Saitama. As usual, the trip went like a breeze, I arrived 20 minutes before my flight, checked in, passed security and boarded my flight all in one stride. Not the shadow of a line anywhere, a wonder for french guy used to american and european airports. Then once I got to Haneda, I still had 2 hours of train to reach the hell-hole of Saitama where I live... まあね、しょうがない！

In the 4 days I had left, having lost 3 to the flu, here's what I managed to accomplish:

• Visited 平和公園 and the Peace museum, as seen in the attached photo of the A-bomb dome.
• Went to 宮島 and got to see all the sights. However I missed the monkeys at the top of the island since the ropeway was not open yet and the fast road by foot had been destroyed by a typhoon and they were rebuilding it.
• Checked out the Hiroshima Museum of Contemporary Art.
• Shopping in 本通, the little Shinjuku of Hiroshima.

You might say "It ain't much!" but the purpose of the trip was to spend time with my girlfriend who moved out 2 months ago, not sight-seeing. That mission was accomplished. I'll post more photos of stuff I saw in the coming week.