Kure Portpia Park — Attraction in Kure

Something of an oddity - Kure Portpia (Portopia?) started life as a theme park, which went out of business, and instead has been turned into a park ran by the local authority. There's a couple of non-vernacular buildings with a sort of mock Mediterranean feel, a few permanent shops, and then occasional events in the grounds - on the day we went there was a market selling pottery. Not exactly on the "must see" list for a visit to Hiroshima, but if you find yourself spending a long time in the area it's a bit unusual, and if nothing else there are nice sea...

Was an amusement park back in the day, but while te rollercoasters and such are gone, there's still a large kids' pool and many lovely places among the amazing, Spanish-inspried buildings. Absolutely charming! A shaved ice place, a curry shop, even a manga library with AC. And the ferry to Etajima, just a short ride across the gorgeous Setonai Sea is also here. Great cycling pit stop, too, between Kure City and Hiroshima...

We were a group of more than 40 foreigners there, beautiful place and we had fun. Only misunderstanding is, we started playing guitar and singing which authority later explained us that, we are not allowed to do so. This was a...