Hiroshima: Saeki Vegetarian Restaurant — Guide miki

Title: What's a Private Hiroshima Tour Like? A Licensed Guide's Report on the Peace Memorial Museum and Local Transport

The guests were visitors from North America. Since one of the guests preferred vegetarian meals, I reserved a vegetarian restaurant for lunch in advance. Perhaps having experienced that vegetarian restaurants are limited during their trip in Japan, just before arriving at the restaurant they kindly said, "Thank you for finding a vegetarian place for us."

At the restaurant, a question came up about the relationship between Hiroshima, North America, and the former Soviet Union. I answered to the best of my knowledge. There is a description of this inside the Atomic Bomb Museum as well, and the guests said they had never heard anything back home about how the former Soviet Union and North America had been competing to develop nuclear weapons. They also said they were glad to learn for the first time about the relationship between the end of the war and the Emperor. After finishing the museum tour, they were delighted, saying, "We're so glad you brought us all the way here. We could never have made it this far on our own, and we couldn't have used all the little tricks you did along the way."

On this day the guests had an ICOCA card. When boarding the bus, they asked, "I wonder how much balance is left," so when they tapped the card and it displayed 680 yen, I told them so. They were worried about topping up, but I explained, "You plan to take the bus three times, so at 220 yen x 3 times that's 660 yen, which should be just enough." However, when we returned to Hiroshima Station, the bus driver said, "Not enough, not enough," so the guests topped up on the spot and got off. Since I had checked the balance display together with the guests in the morning, I decided to check the ICOCA transaction history. It seems both the guests and I had misread the balance, perhaps due to some difficulty seeing small numbers. It was not "680 yen" but originally "630 yen." We rode the bus three times, 220 yen x 3 = 660 yen, meaning we were 30 yen short. The guests said, "I only paid 30 yen, so even if it was some kind of mistake, I don't mind," but I wanted to keep money matters clear, so I confirmed it. I had them look at the printed history, and they were fully satisfied, which I was glad about.

There was one more matter. After arriving at Hiroshima Station, the guests asked me to look at their return Shinkansen ticket. When I checked, there was only a boarding ticket and no limited express ticket. They were confused, as they did not have the concept that both a boarding ticket and a limited express ticket are needed to ride the Shinkansen. Also, a receipt had been issued on the same colored paper, so it seems they had become completely confused about what was what. I guided them to the JR counter for foreign visitors, and they were able to purchase the return limited express ticket without any trouble.

Between checking the ICOCA history and assisting with the return Shinkansen limited express ticket, the tour ended 30 minutes over the scheduled time. That is all.

Click here for more details: Hiroshima Peace Park Customized Tour with Licensed Guide

Tour Report by miki

Dear guests,
Hello! My name is Miki. I was born and brought up in Hiroshima. I enjoy traveling around Inland Sea areas and I enjoy chatting with guests from overseas!

In Hiroshima, you can see many beautiful rivers and old bridges. Lately, I often take photos of Hiroshima city including bridges and rivers. There are not many tall buildings here, but I know some places you can visit and see the view for free. By the atomic bomb dome, there is a building called Orizuru(paper crane) Tower. You need to pay to go up to the top floor but you can see the view of Hiroshima city and the Miyajima Island(Itsukushima).

Many tourists from overseas as well as Japan want to visit Miyajima Island. You can see a beautiful shrine from Heian Period which is around 12th century and a huge Torii gate in front of the shrine and it is in the water. There are several ways to visit the island from Hiroshima city. If you are going to stay near JR Hiroshima Station, we will visit the island by JR train and JR ferry. If you are staying in the city area, we can go there by streetcar and ferry, or there is a high-speed boat from Peace Memorial Park pier directly to the island and vise versa.

Hoping to see you in the near future!

Miki
Your tour guide in Hiroshima