My 6 Week Asian Adventure: Kokura & Hiroshima

On Sunday night we had dinner in Kokura with Katie’s friend Ami. We ate at a Izakaya, a pub-type restaurant where you can order all different kinds of Japanese dishes. We paid 1000 Yen for all you can drink for 2 hours, and we each had to order two dishes. We tried shrimp flavored chips, edamame, pork dumplings, Chiizu-age - deep fried cheese, fried rice balls, raw horse meat and Yakitori which is chicken on a skewer, we had kawa (chicken skin), tsukune (chicken meatballs), chicken meat and chicken wings (tebasaki). I also tried a few of their “sour” cocktaials, like mango sour and strawberry sour, they are not sour at all, they are actually very sweet. And I really liked the plum wine! We had to take off our shoes before going inside the restaurant, so we ate barefoot! At our hostels and peoples homes we always have to take off our shoes and they give you slippers to wear if you are brave enough, I just wear my socks. After dinner we walked to Kokura Castle, which was all lit up.

On Monday we got up pretty early and headed straight to Hiroshima. We climbed the Hiroshima Castle, saw the A-Dome (the Atomic Bomb Dome), Hiroshima peace memorial and we went to the Peace Memorial Museum as well. The museum definitely displays the war, pre and post, from the Japanese point of view, and it was very interesting to see it this way. They barely mentioned Pearl Harbor and the attack there. It was sad to see all the artifacts, clothing and toys they had on display that they found in the rubble in Hiroshima after the bombing. They even had pictures of burnt bodies! I got nauseous after the first few and had to leave that room really quick.

We walked around the city again at night and I still can’t get over the amount of shopping and malls they have!!! Also the endless number of restaurants too, but the shopping is unbelievable! I wanted to buy so many things and I was so tempted to and just leave some of my clothes at the hostel, but I decided not to.

For dinner we ate at a Restaurant that specializes in Okonomi-yaki, which is famous in Hiroshima. Everyone kept calling it the Japanese pizza-pancake, but the only resemblance is the round shape. It is made on a hibachi grill with eggs, shredded cabbage, bacon, soba noodles and if you want you can add cheese, mayonnaise, dried squid, leeks, shrimp, etc. We added some type of Japanese herb to it. It wasn’t bad, but I don’t think I’d order it again. I also tried spicy raw squid, which was not as chewy as I expected it to be, and I had green at ice cream for dessert, which was one of the strangest things I’ve ever tried. I had one bite and threw it out. You can just imagine what ice cream made out of tea tastes like…Anyways, I feel like I am on a culinary adventure in Japan. I’m having a lot of fun trying all the different dishes. There are so many things on the menus here that they consider traditional Japanese food that I’ve never seen on Japanese menu at home.

Speaking of food…we went to a grocery store last night and could barely tell what half of the food was, even the things that had pictures! It was interesting. And the Fuji apples (from the Fuji region in Japan) and three times the size of apples at home.

Our room at the J-Hoppers Hostel in Hiroshima had a different type of Japanese sleeping arrangement. We slept on futons on floors made out of straw, and they are so much more comfortable then the futon mattresses we have at home! We had an all female room with two other woman, one was from Barcelona so I got to speak Spanish with her because she didn’t really speak English very well. Of course I would find a way to speak Spanish on this trip! Haha
This morning we went to Miyajima, which is an island off of Hiroshima. It only took us 20 minutes by train and less than a 10 minutes ferry ride to get there. Both the train and the ferry are run by the JR so we got to us our JR rail pass, which is definitely paying off!

On the island we went to the O-torii Gate, which is what makes the Island so famous. On the Island there are deer everywhere and they come right up to you too! We even saw one in a book shop! The town and shops here are numerous, as always, and it had a very different feeling from the big cities we’ve been in. I really enjoyed it and wish we had had more time there to explore the rest of the Island. We tried Momiji manju, which is a maple leaf shaped cake with a filling. I had the one filled with chocolate and Katie had cream cheese. They also had ones filled with raisins, almonds, bean paste, red paste, custard, whole beans..you get the picture. All the shops make them right there and we got to watch them being made, it was really neat! Oysters from the Hiroshima Bay are also well-known here and were everywhere on the Island. That is the one thing I wish I had gotten to try, but I just couldn’t stomach the thought of eating oysters at 9am.
We are now on the train to Kyoto. We were rushing a little to make our train and when we got to track 14 one train was about to leave and I thought it was ours so we got on. It wasn’t. We still had 6 minutes. We got on the super express train by accident, our pass is only good for the regular express trains, that was going direct to the same place but faster, and we didn’t have to change in Osaka. So that ended up working out perfectly. And no one checked our tickets for about 45 minutes so we sat in really nice seats for a while.
We are staying at a Ryokan, a traditional Japanese inn. I am very excited because there are hot baths here and my shoulders are starting to get a little sore from my backpack. Also I think we’ve walked at least 5 miles everyday, but I think it’s actually more than that. It’s nice because we get to see so much more of the city this way and the weather has been beautiful so we’ve gotten to enjoy that too. The past few days have been sunny and warm , 20-24 degrees Celsius, I’m not sure what that is in Fahrenheit but its nice! I’m so glad I’m not at home in the cold rain and snow!