Hiroshima!

Luckily for us, Japan has several holidays during the fall, at least one per month! So I have been spending my long weekends going on little trips as much as possible. In October I went on a road trip to Hiroshima with two other ALTs. It was my first road trip in Japan and it was a blast!

On Friday after we all left work we grabbed our bags, met up and hit the road by 6:30 p.m. Our overnight journey was long but littered with stops along the way. Road trips in Japan are the best because the rest areas are so incredible. First, there are rest stops conveniently located every 20 minutes it seems. Second, they are all equipped with spotless bathrooms, electric car charging stations, convenience stores, souvenir shops, and small restaurants. It is always a pleasure to make a pit stop and then grab a snack or baked good from one of the vendors while persuing the items that are special to that locale. In fact, the only drawback to rest stops is that it is hard to actually keep a good pace of travel since its so tempting to stop at every one of the convenient and pleasing rest stops during your trip! Our best stop however was not at a rest stop, but halfway through the drive we stopped in Kyoto to see Yasaka Shrine, my personal favorite, which is open 24 hours a day! 

I had been to this shrine only once before, and by this visit I was reminded how much I like it. For some intangible reason this shrine really speaks to me. Which I have found to be the case at various shrines and temples. I may appreciate the beauty of all of them, but inexplicably there are certain ones I visit even one time and feel a special serenity in. After we spent about an hour walking through the quiet, beautiful lit up grounds of the shrine we reluctantly piled back in the car to get back on the road.

The beautiful gates of Yasaka Shrine stand by a busy intersection in a nightlife area of Kyoto.

This little shrine is dedicated to youthful beauty. We read some of the wish plaques people had written, with wishes such as everlasting white skin, flat stomachs, beautiful hair, and more. The spring pours out water it says that has beauty-preserving properties. Eyeing the good opportunity for a mid-trip refresh, I splashed my face too. 

I drove for the next two hours until about 4:00 in the morning. With everyone in the car falling asleep I decided it was time to pull into one of the rest areas for a nap. Two hours later I woke with a start sensing it was daylight already. Looking out through our foggy car windows I saw the rest area had come alive with other travelers pulling in and walking around. I glanced at the clock to see it was only six, but I roused the other two so we could get moving since we still had a few hours till we reached Hiroshima.

We finally made it to Hiroshima around eleven (after 16 hours of travel), much later than I had hoped we would get there. So we parked the car by our hostel, walked to the station, stowed our bags in coin lockers (I love traveling in Japan, again convenience at its best) and finally we were ready to start exploring!

Miyajima Island

Our first destination was Miyajima, a famous island right off of the banks of Hiroshima City. We took a short ferry ride from the mainland to island. As we approached the huge red torii standing in the sea welcomed our arrival. Torii are the special gates leading up to shrines, this one specifically stands in the water and is one of the icons of Japan. Even if you have never traveled here, it is likely you have seen a picture of this spot.

As soon as we got off the ferry we were greeted by deer everywhere! Lots of deer live on the island and are friendly with humans (since they want snacks). We even witnessed a deer snatch a paper map from another tourist and then munch on it right there. After laughing at the saucy deer we headed to our first sight on the island- Itsukushima Shrine. This famous shrine is the one with the huge torii standing in the sea before it. We strolled through a couple of neighborhood Miyajima brick streets on our way to the shrine which were quiet but pretty.

Itsukushima was packed with people, as expected. But it was expansive and open so it was nice to walk through. It is also painted a vivid and intense orange. After walking through the shrine and taking some cute pictures we headed off to hike Mt. Misen.

Mt. Misen is the highest point on Miyajima, and it took us about an hour and a half to climb up the mountain trail. The trail was probably 85% stairs, so it was a great work out. At the top we found a huge boulder with a great view, so we sat on that and cracked our beers in perfect time to enjoy the most beautiful sunset I have ever seen.

The view of Miyajima from halfway up the mountain

Gate at the top of the mountain, two wooden warrior to guard the holy area full of shrines.

Deer hanging out at one of the shrines on top of the mountain.

While we were sitting up there enjoying the view, a British man came climbing up by himself and joined us on the boulder. As it got darker we decided it was time to head back down from the mountain. We headed to the ropeway station to ride in a car back down, but found that we missed the last one by 30 minutes. Desperately we lingered around the station hoping to meet a technician closing up and taking the last car down. Soon we heard movement inside the building and glimpsed a technician. We walked around to the back door hoping to corner him when he popped out, but to no avail. However, a second techinician aproached from below so we called out to him and asked if we could possibly ride down. He was, however, very by the book. He told us it was already closed, and that was that.

We checked the map to confirm the shortest trail and started down the mountain in the dark. We selected the shortest trail to minimize time but it was also the steepest and rockiest. With iphones out to use as flashlights we set out, stumbling every so often on the slippery sand or rocky steps. After awhile of stumbling we got off the mountain at around six or seven. By this time we were starving so we headed out to find dinner.

Unfortunately all the restaurants seemed to have closed! Even though it was still early and a Saturday night we were met with dark windows and closed doors at every turn. Apparently since all the tourists leave by around 5, all the shops close up as well. We asked a couple of young guys we met on the road if they knew anywhere open and they took us to the only place they could think of. It was a guest house that does dinners, however they were not open to the public. The lady did give us a map that showed the restaurants open at night on Miyajima (the fact that they have to have such a map is telling).

We found one of the recommended places where we feasted on fried oysters and anagodon (sea eel donburi) two Mijyajima specialties which are delicious!

Instructions for riding the train we found in the station- "Don't run for your train. It's dangerous and embarrassing if you get caught between the doors." Well said.

By the end of dinner, all three of us were tired from a long day and no sleep (driving the night before). However, we couldn't hit our pillows yet. We headed back to the city of Hiroshima where we grabbed our bags but had no hostel to head to, since they were all completely booked when I made arrangements a few weeks previously. No place to stay the night? I was not going to let this stop me from making my long awaited trip to Hiroshima. So I brainstormed alternatives. I read about manga and internet cafes online, and planned this as our lodging for the night. 

The internet cafe turned out to be a fantastic deal. It was conveniently located right outside of the Hiroshima train station, so we had hardly a 100 meter walk after we grabbed our bags from the coin lockers. Once inside we checked in and signed up for little members cards so we could rent a space. We each got a little cubicle with a desk, computer, and reclining chair. We requested the nine hour package, so we had our rooms for that time, had access to the shower, and there was even an all you can drink bar included with soda, tea, coffee and other hot drinks as well. All for just 2100 yen too! It was very cheap and I had no problem sleeping there. I was too tired (and truthfully just kinda lack the interest) but there were shelves and shelves of different manga and magazines available for people to read. It is so interesting that these manga cafes are available, and Japanese people go to rent out a cubicle by the hour to sit and read. Whether you want a comfy place to read a library's worth of comics or you need a last minute place to stay for the night, internet cafes get my stamp of approval!

Hiroshima City

After a successful night's sleep in the manga cafe, I arose at seven. Once all three of us were awake and rallied we headed to the train station to dine on a bakery/McDonald's breakfast. Once full and energized for the day, we set out to see the Peace Park. The Peace Park is an area of the city memorializing the victims and history of the atomic bombing by the United States during World War II.

We started at the north end by the A-Bomb Dome. At the time of the bombing this building was called the Hiroshima Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall and was used primarily for displaying arts and educational exhibits. This building was the only structure left standing near the bomb's hypocenter. Since then, the city of Hiroshima has made efforts to preserve the ruins of the building so that it looks exactly as it did the day after the bombing. The A-Bomb Dome, as it is now known, stands as a symbol for the destruction that occurred August 6th, 1945.

There there was even a man hanging out in the park explaining historical events to visitors. He had several notebooks in English, French, Chinese and Korean that he prepared so many different people would be able to read about the events of the bombing. He is apparently an in utero survivor of the bombing and compiled all of this information so that visitors would be sure to have the full story.

In the park there is a place displaying hundreds of strings of paper cranes that have been folded usually by students around Japan. In Japanese folklore the crane is a mystical animal that lives for 1000 years. According to legend any person who folds 1000 paper cranes will be granted a wish by a crane, receive eternal good luck, prosperity or recovery from illness. The cranes are a popular gift for marriage as a wish of 1000 years of happiness for the couple and are even given to newborn babies as a token of long life and luck.

Paper cranes are significant at the Peace Park due to the story of one little girl named Sadako Sasaki. She was 24 months old at the time of the bombing and developed leukemia during the aftermath. When she was 12 she had spent much of her life in long term hospital care and decided to fold 1000 cranes and wish for her illness to be cured. She folded all her cranes, however she was too sick to recover and died later the same year. Since then paper cranes have become associated with the Peace Park in Hiroshima.

The Peace Museum was shockingly comprehensive. It gives me chills to recall some of the images and artifacts preserved in the museum. The events of that day were described in detail from all perspectives. From the technical process of the atomic explosions to the horrifying personal stories of survivors and victims who were caught in the blast. Even each artifact on display had the identity of the person it belonged to and their story- who they were, how far from the epicenter they were, what happened to them, what family members they left behind. The artifacts included everything from school uniforms, death certificates, school schedules, a three year old's tricycle, to locks of hair that a mother cut off her elementary school child after she died soon after the blast, to some pieces of skin and fingernails that fell off of a small boy who died- his mother had saved them to show to her husband when he returned from war. Although adult's things were displayed as well, the artifacts were overwhelmingly items belonging to children.

The biological effects on the bodies of the victims was described in detail as well. There were also so many pictures of people with burns covering their entire bodies and a soldier whose skin was covered in purple spots of blood before he died. The many symptoms were described, including bleeding from the mucous membranes, stomach lining peeling from the walls of the stomach, and more. Many victims vomited up their own bloody organs before dying. Others developed long term illnesses like leukemia which slowly killed them over a few years.

I was disgusted when I learned what the U.S. military designated for the atomic bombs as "code names." The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was dubbed, "Little Boy;" while the bomb dropped on Nagasaki was called, "Fat Man." These weapons of such horrifying destruction murdered so many children and other innocent people, yet the U.S. gave them these crude names like they were a big joke.

We also went to the Memorial Hall in honor of the victims. At the end of the hall was a special exhibit about the book, "Children of Hiroshima." This book was compiled about ten years after the bombing and documents the stories told by children in their own words about what happened that day. There were pictures hand drawn by the kids and stories they had written down, about what happened, what they saw, and which of their family members they watched die. One story told by a little girl remembers how she and her little brother walked out of town together after the blast, she looked at him and saw his melted skin hanging in tatters off of his body.

Most of the kids featured in the book were around 3rd grade of elementary school at the time of the bombing and were interviewed as junior high students. Watching the video was the most heart wrenching thing I have ever seen. I can't help but think of my own students- how small and sweet they are- what if they were faced with something so horrible?

A memorial showing the time 8:15, the time that the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

After leaving the memorial we quietly walked back through the park. I felt completely empty. Not sure if I was drained by the museum or just hungry or both, but since it was past noon we decided to go for lunch. We popped out an iphone to direct ourselves around the streets of Hiroshima with google maps. The trend for the whole weekend was lots of puzzlement, wrong turns, and backtracking as the app updated slowly or led us in strange ways. We indulged in some soft cream from a conbini and then headed to a building called Okonomiyaki Village. It has five floors that are all packed with okonomiyaki counters. We picked one with space and ordered our lunch- the famous Hiroshima Style Okonomiyaki!

It was fun to watch the cook prepare it on the grill counter right in front of us. His method of sauteeing food and chopping the okonomiyaki with those sharp steel spatulas was so interesting. Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is cooked in layers, first the batter, then a pile of cabbage, then strips of pork and other fill ins, then the mayonaiise, then noodles (soba or udon) and finally topped with a fried egg and the special sauce.

And... I do not like it. I love classic okonomiyaki (that is all mixed together) it is hands down one of my top three favorite foods in Japan. But I do not care for the Hiroshima style one bit. It was the second time for me to eat it, so it is fair for me to say I just plain don't like it but I did give it a chance. Now Hiroshima style okonomiyaki is very famous and most people rave about it after eating it. So why do I not like it? Cooking it in layers dries out the ingredients and makes for a less than satisfactory texture. The thin layer of batter makes a tough shell that is almost impossible to cut through and the soba noodles get dry and hard as well. Normally yakisoba is soft and wonderful, so I'm not sure what causes it to get hard in okonomiyaki, but it does. My lunchmates did not seem to mind nor even notice the hardness so I think most people don't. But anyway, went to Hiroshima, ate the famed Hiroshima style okonomiyaki, didn't like it. A good experience either way, plus I still have my favorite classic okonomiyaki to enjoy!

After we ate we headed to Hiroshima's annual Sake Matsuri to drown our heavy hearts (from the peace park- and in my case, disappointing food) in nihonshu. We paid about twenty dollars for a ticket, received a special sake cup for use in the festival and in we went! It was held in a plaza/park area dubbed "Sake Plaza." It is unclear whether it is called Sake Plaza just for the event, or all year round. However, I like to think it is called Sake Plaza all the time.

Once inside the walls of the plaza we were greeted by a cute park with paths winding throughout the trees. Around the entire perimeter was booths serving sake to the visitors. Every prefecture was represented by a different booth, and each booth offered at least 50 types of sake for festival guests to taste. They were even organized on a scale distinguishing them from sweet to dry varieties. We strolled around stopping at a booth every couple minutes to have our sake cups filled, experimenting with the sweet and dry sakes. At one point we were approached by an old gentleman who wanted to kanpai and welcome us to his town, Saijo (a little outside of Hiroshima) the location of the festival. While talking to him we found out that he is in fact a member of Japanese parliament.

We spent about an hour and a half at the festival, drinking sake and chatting with various people, mostly foreigners. At five it was time for the event to shut down so the event workers began withholding the sake, and walking around announcing the closing. As we left we noticed several people laying down in the first aid tent as well as a person wheeled out on a gurney. It was an alcohol festival after all I suppose... The three of us however walked out in a fantastic mood and as we strolled back to the station stopped at food stalls to get some snacks. Including a crepe stand, where they even gave us cups of fresh juice on the house! We headed back into Hiroshima and headed out to our hostel.

The hostel was absolutely lovely, and run by two young Japanese girls who were super sweet. They also had the front set up as a bar that was even open to the locals. We spent several hours that evening chatting with the people staying and the ones who came to socialize. It was so relaxed and our hosts were so friendly. They even served all of us a drink of umeshu on the house. At 11:30 they closed down the bar area so we all headed to bed, we had to gear up for our full day of driving ahead.

I woke up at seven to shower and get my things together. We ate breakfast in the hostel- toast, a fried egg, small salad, and oranges. Presently we had to say goodbye and load up in the car. Before leaving Hiroshima, we went to the station to do our last minute omiyagae shopping, where I found lovely momiji manju and citrus flavored kit kats to give to my associates. Finally we got on the road.

Here we are with another guest we met, a girl traveling alone from Taiwan.

Return trip- with a side excursion to Kobe!

The biggest typhoon of the year blew over Japan on Monday, so the entire way home we had to drive in pouring, hard rain. The highlight of the day however was our lunch of Kobe beef. Kobe beef is known around the world for the rich tenderness of the meat. In order to produce Kobe beef a certain breed of cattle called Tajima are raised in Hyogo prefecture with careful attention to their breeding and care.

Each calf destined to become a luxurious meal of Kobe beef is given a serial number and official certificate assuring its authenticity. These certificates stay with the cow even as far as to the restaurants that purchase the beef to prepare for customers. I heard that when you are dining on Kobe beef you can even ask to see the certificate of the cow that provided your meal. There are special qualifications set by the Kobe Beef Marketing and Distribution Promotion Association that each cow must maintain in order to be designated as Kobe beef. The cow has to be born and raised in Hyogo prefecture (Kobe is the capitol, and namesake of the beef) where it is fed only Hyogo prefecture grasses and grains during its life. The cow must also be a steer for purity of the meat. Then the cow must be slaughtered and processed at one of the approved slaughterhouses in Hyogo. Furthermore the gross weight of the meat from one cow cannot surpass a 470 kilogram weight limit. The meat itself must also pass inspections with a marbling ratio of level 6 or above and the meat quality score should be a 4 or 5. After a meticulous upbringing and preparation process the meat is ready for your dining pleasure.

That morning I spent hours on my phone looking up restaurants where we could try some of the famed beef. It was very difficult to find one that was not only open but also not the price of our firstborn child.

Finally, I found a restaurant with positive reviews, open all day, and only 5000 yen for the lunch set. So at the next rest area we stopped at I called to make a reservation, three for lunch at three.

We found a parking area close by and then followed the directions of the Google maps app to the wrong building. Looking at the sign with all the restaurant and store logos listed we found that our restaurant was absent. Huddled with our umbrellas under the eaves of neighboring buildings we began peering around at the surrounding buildings in puzzlement. Coming up with nothing, we decided to ask a couple men who were standing on the street across from us, They looked at the address and one of them promptly grabbed his umbrella and escorted us around the corner right to it. We thanked him and went up a tiny elevator.

When the doors opened there was a sign partially blocking the path, so for a second we hesitated
wondering if that was the right place. We stepped out and forward into the little hall and found no one waiting to greet us. We stepped into the curvy hallway, beautifully decorated, but mystically curving so that you cannot see what lies beyond in the restaurant.  After just a few seconds an older man wearing an apron and low chef's hat greeted us and showed us to our table. The tables were partitioned into private areas with a semi-circular, flat stainless steel grill and and a sunken floor/bench. When we arrived there was only one other party dining so it was a very calm, quiet, and private dining experience.

I left the table to run to the bathroom, to find that our shoes had actually been stowed away out of sight somewhere! So I slipped on the geta, traditional wood platform slippers, and scurried into the first bathroom I saw in the hallway.

Very quickly our host turned into our waiter when he brought out plates of salad topped with tender

slices of peppered duck, as well as both hot tea and glasses of water. He also brought out a plate with a slab of our amazingly marbled, pale pink steak which he set on the side of the table- presumably for us to stare at in order to increase our anticipation. After we finished our salad course he brought us mini gratins of beef, potato and cheese. Then he took on a third role as chef, when he brought out vegetables (onion, red pepper, and eggplant) and also began cooking our slab of steak.

Watching him cook the steak and vegetables was so interesting and appetizing. After sauteeing them in a bit of oil he put a metal cover on the vegetables to steam them as he did other work. Once cooked he cut them into threes with the sharp spatulas and served the pieces to us one by one as he prepared them. He also toasted mince garlic on the stove, and when it was good and toasted be laid the steak down in the seasoned area, this too was covered with a metal top to steam. Once the meat was cooked to a perfect medium rare he began to slice it into bite size pieces and divvy it between us. The boiling point of fat in Kobe beef is actually lower than other breeds of cattle, so it is best not to cook it past medium rare or else the fat will melt away. Why would this be bad? The fine marbling of the fat throughout the tender meat is what causes the melt in your mouth effect that Kobe beef is famous for.

Each bite of that steak was absolutely mind-blowing. I never knew meat had even the capacity to feel and taste like that. It was so soft and seemed to actually melt in your mouth. We were mostly speechless during our meal, instead savoring the perfection on the counter in front of us.

While grilling our steak he trimmed tiny pieces of fat off of it and set them aside. Then he sauteed bean sprouts with the fat bits and served that to us next. Our next course was miso soup and rice. He sauted minced garlic in the beef fat, then fried the rice with it. Once it reached perfection he portioned it into three bowls and set one in front of each of us. Our chef then disappeared into the back, leaving us to sip our miso and eat our garlic fried rice while we reminisced (already!) about how wonderful the beef was. Then he came back in with three little bowls in which rested a scoop of homemade peach ice cream topped with a drizzle of honey. The ice cream was so lightly sweetened so that the flavor of the peach paired with the honey was satisfying and refreshing at the same time.

With that our meal experience came to a close. The three of us each took turns going to the unmarked bathroom before leaving. When it was my turn, the chef happened to be standing in the hallway, and seeing I intended to go to the restroom he ushered me further down the hall into a second bathroom. It was then that I realized the restrooms were actually his/her separated. But the only "sign" was a couple small old-fashioned Japanese style masks hanging on the wall outside. A white faced lady outside the girls and a green goblin face outside the men's room. When I went back to the table to join my travel partners, I recounted this discovery. To one of my friend's horror, she realized that she used the men's restroom and the chef had seen her enter it. We laughed as we lamented the fact that we used the wrong restroom during the fanciest meal of our lives.

After our incredible meal of Kobe beef we got back on the road for the second half of our trip back home. Once we reached Kanazawa, we stopped back in our favorite American oasis for dinner, then continued home. We finally reached home around midnight, and I crashed as quickly as possible before work the next day.