16,000 Steps to Hiroshima's Botanical Garden and Back!
I suppose you could call this May Day a sort of penance after last night's debauch.
I got up around 10:30am and after a light breakfast - toast and coffee - I spent the rest of the morning putting myself back together.
While I was out last night @russellstockley had read my first #justonething article and was inspired to propose setting up a new justonething community to encourage others to publish daily content on the Hive blockchain too. I readily agreed to his suggestion.
You can read the introductory post about our new group @
Walking To The Botanical Garden
At midday I set off with the Mrs to accomplish one of our goals for the Golden Week period - walk to the Botanical Gardens which I had never visited heretofore even though they are in our neck of the woods.
The Hiroshima Botanical Gardens are located up a hill in Saekiku, which is to the west of Hiroshima city. You can approach the botanical gardens by walking along an unprepossing river - or rather along one of the roads that runs along the unprepossing river. That part of the walk was as dull as ditchwater.
Things improved somewhat once we had got off that road and started to head up the hill, past the Hiroshima bypass.
At the foot of the hill we noticed a ramen restaurant that was packed with people clamouring for lunch so we thought we'd give it a try on the way back, if it were not so crowded...
Hiroshima Botanical Garden
This is the entrance to the botanical garden. The poppies in the middle are disporting themselves in all their pomp as if in mockery of my hangover.
The Sea! The Sea!
Look back carefully from the entrance terrace and you can see the sea.
Inside the hot house we saw various chocolate, coffee and pepper trees among a whole bunch of other florae too numerous to list here, though I did stop to measure myself against a north Australian boab tree...
... before strolling over to check out a gaudy Philippina beauty apparently called strongylodon macrobotrys.
Floral Nostalgia
Some of the flowers brought back childhood memories. There were the Venus fly traps - I was given one on several occasions as a boy.
The Venus Fly Trap was a friendly ally in the summer battle against flies. There was me with a rolled up newspaper, and my trusty Venus Fly Trap on the window sill - trusty, that is, until it succumbed to neglect, or over or under watering or too much or too little sun or something.
When we went into the next hot house and were confronted with an array of fuchsias, I instantly recalled giving my mother a fuchsia which I suppose I bought on a school trip to an agricultural fair or something.
Crazy Cacti
The cacti also brought back memories, this time of my Timpo Wild West fort, and the plastic cacti that came with it... There is a craziness to cacti that you just can't beat.
Well, that is until you encounter the weird and wonderful world of insect-mimicking orchids that mimic the insects they seek to attract. It seems that the insects drop into the bowl at the bottom of the flower and in the process of clambering out pick up the pollen. Or something like that. I'm an English teacher with a hangover, not a botanist, for goodness sake.
Back outside, we wandered around the Japanese garden and admired the hanging wisteria, the gentle mauve hue of which always seems difficult to capture.
And with that we strolled back down the hill, but decided to go via a different road which meant we would not be stopping at the ramen restaurant for lunch... or so we thought.
Mid Afternoon Ramen and Gyouza
As it turned out, the road taken led us right back to the spot which the road not taken would have led us, that is, to the ramen restaurant, which was indeed no longer crowded, and so in we went.
As you can see, I ordered chashu ramen - extra braised pork belly. We also ordered some gyouza aka Chinese dumplings.
There is nothing better than a stonking good bowl of ramen for seeing off a hangover...
Job Done! Hangover Walked Off
Well, apart from walking it off. And when you combine the two, it turns out that you have a pretty good remedy to the old nocturnal debauch.
Sixteen thousand steps under my belt and all is well with the world, once more.
Cheers for now.
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
Botanical gardens are definitely one of my favourite places when I am in cities and towns and a fantastic way of getting to commune with nature in all its glory
That strongylodon macrobotrys is absolutely stunning
Thanks for sharing your daily stroll with us David, very much appreciated :)
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Thanks, Russell. I have some students from the Philippines so I'm looking forward to seeing if they recognize that strongylodon macrobotrys and can tell me anything about it.
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I hope the humidity was ok for your walk. I really liked visiting Hiroshima and would go again.
Have a great day.
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Thanks for popping by, @mypathtofire - the humidity hasn't kicked in yet so it's still pleasant to go out for walks.
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@hirohurl the new justonething community is a great idea, inspired by your #justonething article, I am already loving it. Nice that your double combo remedy helped and it is all well with the world once more.
Thanks, @gratitudemine - glad you are enjoying our new initiative.
As for the double remedy, it always feels good to have accomplished something positive on the day after an all nighter!
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Came here from listnerds and it was worth the visit :)
Amazing photos and i wish I could walk that place :)
Thank you @dadspardan - the funny thing is I felt my photos did not come close to showing the amazing variety of plants there.
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Great idea for the group @hirohurl the gardens and food looked awesome have the best day my friend 😎
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Thank you @heartbeatonhive - yes, that ramen was most welcome after all that walking.
Glad you enjoyed it my friend it looked yummy have the best day !ALIVE 😎
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What a wonderful stroll! I love botanical gardens! And The Hiroshima one looks so gorgeous! Those fuchsias are amazing, all of it is, especially that ramen, yum! lol!
Glad that it all helped evaporate that hangover too!
Thanks for sharing this on Listnerds!
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Thank you @generikat - glad you found the post via Listnerds!
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Not bad for a Sunday stroll, David. (Except for the hangover part, lol)
Ah yes, Doctor, I will try to avoid hangovers in the future, I promise! 😌
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That's funny David. Just remember to keep hydrated, lol
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It is so beautiful to see Hiroshima in THIS light... not leaving it in its most tragic moment in 1945 ... thank you!
Thank you for popping by @deeanndmathews - I'm glad you enjoyed the photos.
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i can imagine all te hardworks and time spent on this garden to get this beautiul result..well done sir.. looking forward to seeing more of you here on listnerds
Thanks @quduus1 - yes a lot of work has gone into the botanical garden. It was opened in 1976 and has accumulated a huge variety of plants over the years.
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