*Sorry for the delay in the last few posts, I was struck down with food poisoning whilst in Osaka where I had hoped to have wrapped things up but i was too ill!!*
It’s Monday morning the 16th March and we all gingerly woke up to what was going to be another action packed day. After having a nice hot shower we checked out of K’s house and headed to the Shinkansen terminal. I was tired, grumpy and especially hungry so Lisa managed to find some bento boxes at the station so we could eat on the train. Mike and Kim I think were Japanesed out and so they had the buffet breakfast again at the cafe next to K’s house that served cereals, yoghurt, coffee, toast, sausages and what i think were scrambled eggs but looked more like egg flavoured mash potatoes….gross!!!
No Muckin' around, Chucky tackles into his bento box
The shinkansen arrived like clockwork at the station and before you knew it blasted off towards Hiroshima..maybe i was too busy tackling into my bento box to even realise that we had left the station already..hahaha. Oh another trivia about Japan…I don’t know if I had mentioned this in any of my post yet but i am convinced that smoking here in Japan is the desired hobby of most people, as you cannot get away from it! It’s kind of weird to know that back home you are literally persecuted by smoking publicly these days, but over here everyone lives in their own localised smog cloud around their heads! Now back to the train ride, on every shinkansen there are smoking reserved, non-smoking reserved and also the same for non reserved ticket holders. After devouring my bento box I wanted to get a drink from the vending machines that they have at certain spots along the train carriages, where i had to cross two smoking reserved cars. As the doors opened i swear i could almost see a large plume of heavy smelly smoke spew out of the doors and remembered saying in my head…OH GOD!!! The car was full of smokers where the extract fans struggled to deal with the amount of smokers as there was a heavy haze in the air. I tried to breathe through my sleeve while power walking through the first car and then literally ran through while holding my breath through the next one. Gee, you would think that in such a orderly and almost perfect society that smoking would be the most offensive act but nope, blowing you nose in public is the worst..I will get to that in a minute.
We arrived in Hiroshima approximately two hours from Kyoto and followed the directions to Hana Hostel which was only 3 minutes from the train station. We got there a little too early as check in was at 3pm so we decided to hire some bikes and head off to see the Museum and the A-bomb dome located downtown. Hiroshima to me was a baby city compared to Tokyo and Kyoto that didn’t have the hustle and bustle like the other cities, which was good for a change! Oh and Hiroshima is also home to Mazda Motor Corp. where nearly every car on the road except for the taxis are Mazdas. It’s like the Japanese people have an unwritten duty to be super patriotic to everything they have and own. From cars to mobile phones, computers etc. they are only obsessed on their own creations…you hardly see anyone with iphones or ipods, macs laptops etc. I am in two minds on whether it is because it is more expensive over there or is it because they consider ‘non-Japanese’ an inferior product?
Me and Lisa at the A-Bomb Dome
The museum was a bone chilling experience and describes nearly every detail in picture and transcript of what took place and why the United States decided to bomb Japan. I would like to say that I was really glad there was no propaganda and BS of the incident and the Japanese told the truth about the tragedy. After about 45 minutes, i had about enough as i found it a bit disturbing seeing the remnants of children’s toys and clothes, the radiation shadow left on the stone stairs and the letters after the blast.
Peace memorial at the Museum.
We all left pretty shaken but i think it was well worth the lesson in history. Dinner was at this awesome Japanese restaurant that was recommended to us by the reception girl at Hana Hostel. I tell you now that even though Hiroshima may not have much to go for it, it makes it up in the food..mmmmm….Without a doubt i had the best sashimi ever in my life where the tuna, salmon, squid, prawn, scallop etc. was so fresh and tender that it melted away in your mouth! It was really funny because everything was in Japanese and the waitress had no understanding of english to save her…so John decided we should just do a lucky dip pick and see what we get! It was just a funny dinner experience as we all chose a meal and prayed that we got something that we could eat, as we were getting pretty hungry and pissed (well i was) with the amount of beers and hot sake before a single dish was served. As the food came out one by one, we oohhh’d and ahhhh’d for a bit before diving into them and i tell you every bite was like heaven on a plate. We all shared plates of crumbed Hiroshima oysters (THE BEST OYSTERS IN THE WORLD!! more on these later), sashimi, crumbed sticks of various things (izakaya’s), deep fried tofu and caramalised pork of some description. What a great dinner, perfect accompaniment to good friends around a dinner table is great food I say!!! We finished up at the restaurant and headed to a Lawson’s for desserts before heading back to the Hostel.
The next day we headed to Miyajima Island which was only a half and hour local train ride away from Hiroshima City. Miyajima or ‘shrine island’ is one of the most scared and most scenic places in Japan, and i can now see why! Upon boarding the JR ferry and heading towards the island, you can see the famous red torii gates that stands in the water as we slowly floated past it. Getting off and passing through the information office area before entering the park, you can see wild deer everywhere as they walk up to you trying to steal your maps, eat your lose clothes or sniff at what you are currently eating. I guess that is the real problem of years of unmanaged tourism on wild animals!
Famous red torii gates at Miyajima island
As we walked through all the tourism shops and took pictures of the red torii gates, we accidently broke up into separate groups with Young, Lisa and I in one group and the others in another group. Since Young and I were taking so long at the gates taking pictures, we thought we were lagging behind the group and raced off to see if we could catch up not knowing that the rest of them were actually behind us. So we powered up the mountain to have a look at the shrines before racing up to the cable car station thinking that they would meet us there. After waiting for a bit, we decided to head up the cable car to view the island from the peak. The ride took us up about three quarters up the mountain where we had to walk the rest. Gee whiz, this was the most physical climb that i have ever done with really steep steep stairs that felt endless as we all struggled to put one leg in front of the other…We had many drink breaks and short stops along the 700m route to the peak, but i swear we could have just finished a marathon as we got up to the observatory deck at the peak of the mountain. The view was impressive overlooking the whole island and Hiroshima City, but would have been more awesome if it wasn’t so hazy. We took a moment to enjoy the 360 panoramic view before deciding to hit the trail back down the mountain for a well deserved late lunch and hopefully catch up to the rest of the crew!
Deer on Miyajima Island
We rocketed down the mountain and finally found a place to eat lunch at one of the many many restaurants they have on the island. Lisa had one of the food specialties on the island which is Unago or Congo eel, whereas I had Kakidon (crumbed oysters over rice) and Young had Kaki curry over rice. We all destroyed our lunch before heading a couple of doors down to eat freshly grilled oysters over hot coals…mmmmmm…..Now without a shadow of a doubt, these oysters have got to be the best in the world. I can confidently say that as they were big, meaty and plump that didn’t have the zincy after taste like the ones you get from oysters back home. The flavour was mild and non mucous texture and just cooked in its own juice was absolutely spectacular. Mind you they were not cheap costing 200 yen per oyster (about 3 bucks an oyster) but we couldn’t stop eating them both cooked and fresh ones. Not knowing that the rest of the group were behind us, they only just got down the mountain and saw us eating the yummy oysters and so they went off to eat lunch at the same place we did before joining us in the oyster feast. Our bellies were full of oysters and it was getting late, so we headed back onto the ferry and then onto the train back to Hiroshima ready for our next adventure in Osaka.
Filed under: Japan Trip 09!
