Alex likes a substantial meal. Who doesn't? However, during his work trip he had been eating a lot of very fancy meals of kaiseki which is Japanese haute cuisine and extremely amazing but also rather modest in portions (probably because it is INCREDIBLY expensive). We decided to find something more hearty for him and opted for okonomiyake.
We found a recommendation in Jess' Lonely Planet and set out optimistically to the cab rank. When we explained to the taxi driver where we wanted to go, he was completely non-plussed. I really pushed the limits of my nascent Japanese and managed to explain that it was a restaurant and showed him where it was on the map of Hiroshima. He even tried phoning them but the number in the guide seemed to be wrong.
So I then rocked out a bit of "Where would you recommend for okonomiyake?" and he took us to presumably his favourite place and said it was number one (Ichiban!) so we walked up to the door with enthusiasm. There was quite a lot of people outside and I asked them whether they were waiting and they said "kekko" which is a terrifically useful word which means something like "not necessary" so we hunkered down and it wasn't long until a guy came out and gave us an English menu and shepherded us into a waiting area. If there's one thing Japanese restaurants know, it's how to make you feel like your waiting is GOING somewhere.
We chose a veritable feast from the menu including edamame, a spring onion pancake for appetizer and a version of okonomiyake each. Three of us chose the "Most popular" which was basically "with the lot" and Jess chose the corn and bacon version. The menu indicated that all versions except Jess' came with pork and bonito flakes but not Jess' because hers had bacon.
The chefs cooked on a hotplate in the restaurant so we could see what they were doing. The food was fantastic and Alex was a happy man.