We’ve spent the day wandering around the world famous city of Hiroshima, which has proved to be an incredibly interesting but ultimately harrowing experience.

On the face of it, Hiroshima appears to be like almost any modern city in the civilised world. It’s teeming with cars and people, and modern stone and glass mountains are all around. It’s also a city that tourists visit for one reason, and one reason only - It’s one of the only two cities in the world that’s ever been subject to nuclear attack.

Wandering around the city, there’s not much to indicate this, but the “A-bomb” Dome still stands as a poignant reminder; a civil building at the time of the war, it was one of only four or five structures left standing in the aftermath of the attack. Still standing today under an official preservation act, it functions as a symbolic reminder of the effects of nuclear weapons, and as a cornerstone of the Hiroshima Peace Park.

We visited the Peace Museum, which put’s it’s message across in an objective and occasionally very brutal fashion. History (and probably Google) tells the this horror story much better than I ever could, but to suffice to say it’s not pretty, and is well represented here in all it’s horrifying detail.

There are plaques all over the city, detailing the history of post war Hiroshima in such a way that it feels like it was only yesterday the place was reduced to a pile of burning ashes - indeed, there’s this eerie feeling that underneath the New Hiroshima, the remnants of the old exists in some shape or form.

Despite all this gruesome history, we did get to visit the exquisite Shukkeien garden in the afternoon, and despite the dull weather still managed to celebrate my birthday in typical fashion - sandwiches and cake.