Hiroshima Food Festival

On the weekend the Hiroshima Food Festival was held in and around the grounds of Hiroshima Castle (the original of which was blasted away by the Bomb, so tis an 1950s remake). It was a glorious day, the autumn sunlight streamed through the trees and dragon-boats paced up and down the waters of the moat to the merry beat of a drum.

Hundreds of people turned out for the festival. Most of the offerings were of the meaty variety including Hiroshima`s famous oysters, squid, beef, whole fish on skewers, noodles and mushroom rice. I was thrilled to find an array of sake stalls handing out free samples, so I quaffed quite a few thimbles of the stuff, including sake served with a bamboo scoop from a bowl made of ice. So I was rather squifflicated for most of the afternoon and was taken aback when I espied metal life-size cut-outs of Miyazaki icon - Totoro - randomly standing in the grass. And I was even more startled when, after wobbling my way through a variety of sake stalls, I came upon a Banrock Station stall. Yes, they were selling little bladders of Banrock`s merlot and shiraz etc. Most peculiar! And so I staggered passed the dancing row of Totoros in shock and managed to find my bike out of the hundreds that were parked nearby. It is most interesting to ride one`s bike home at 3 in the afternoon while drunk. One has to dodge small children and stumpy-tailed cats. It is also important to ride in a straight line whenever possible.

Interestingly, many of my fellow scholars have teetotalled in the sake department - three of them had black-outs after drinking the stuff and couldn`t remember a thing!