Japan Trip (Spring 2008) - Part 5
Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, Himeji
We are finally at the last part of this Japan Trip series. This really turned out much longer than I thought it would. On the trip I was planning for just three short posts. But when I got home it was so hard to choose which pictures to share!
Without anymore delay, here we go…above were some pastry selections from one of those service areas that I told you about. This one was a restroom/snack/lunch stop. Free green tea as usual at these nicer rest stops.
Below is one of the stalls outside of the building. This young man sold all kinds of grilled or deep fried things - chicken, beef, fishcake, etc.
We had the asparagus bacon fishcake. Interesting taste…being hot off the grill, it kept our hands and stomach warm.
Then we went to go visit the Mazda car factory. Before going in to the actual assembly line area (sorry photos not allowed) we learned about the history of the company…
And got a glimpse of possible things to come.
The next day we went to visit the bridge at Iwakuni then moved on to Miyajima Island. To get to Miyajima Island we caught this ferry.
It’s the deer again - hold on to your papers!
And of course, the famous floating torii gate.
Our guide told us about some of the specialties in Hiroshima and I wanted try whatever I could find. So here we have a lunch of anago don (anago = conger/saltwater eel v.s. unagi = freshwater eel).
I also had some Hiroshima style okonomiyaki. This dish uses a thin kind of crepe like batter with vegetables, noodles, egg, and thinly sliced meat.
Because I had just eaten the anago don for lunch, I opted for the half order. Here’s a closeup…
Can’t forget about the dessert/snack specialty, Momiji manju.
I bought some of the cream/custard variety, so good!
After eating all of my Hiroshima foods, we went to visit the very important Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum and Park. Below is the former old Prefectural Industrial Promotion Hall devastated during the atomic attack in 1945.
The Children’s Memorial in honor of leukemia victim Sadako Sasaki was very touching.
We all made some paper cranes to offer here and wish for peace.
In the museum we saw very large wall sized photos of the effects of the bomb.
I didn’t notice this until I uploaded my pictures but pay careful attention to the mountain range in the picture below and the one after it showing modern day Hiroshima from my hotel room.
I didn’t realize I was taking it from such a similar perspective. I’m glad the city has been able to recover and move on to become such an educational place to visit.
This evening we were on our own so we decided to do a little shopping at the Hondori Arcade.
We walked around the shops and streets for several hours then finally made our way back towards the hotel. There was another shopping area next door to our hotel so we grabbed a bite there at a tonkatsu restaurant.
I don’t know if you can tell but the picture above is actually supposed to have one more piece of tonkatsu in the middle. I was so hungry that I started eating before realizing I didn’t take a picture! To make up for it, here’s a close up…
And finally, I’ll finish this Japan Trip series with my favorite activity from our last fully guided day. A trip to Himeji Castle and a hike all the way up to the tip top of the castle. There was actually a lot of uphill walking just to get to the bottom floor of the castle.
We were told this was used in the making of the movie, “The Last Samurai” with Tom Cruise. I’ll have to watch it again to see if I can recognize any of the areas we walked through.
Made it!! There sure were a lot of stairs inside the castle - and steep ones too, almost like climbing a ladder!
But at least on the walk back down there were pretty trees to enjoy.
Top 6 things I will miss about Japan:
1. Easy access to so much good food
2. Strong work ethic of employees
3. Complimentary green tea everywhere you go
4. Japanese TV shows
5. Department stores with 10+ floors
6. Food, food, food!!!
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27 comments
what a great tour! thanks for sharing
Wow, thank you for sharing your experiences in Japan! I thoroughly enjoyed every post, and this one in particular took me way back. I didn’t get to visit Himeji unfortunately, but Miyajima was definitely a highlight.
I miss all the great food as well!
Hi kat,
Thanks, I’m glad you liked it!
Hi Lindsey,
You’re welcome and I agree, Miyajima was really fun!
I am seriously looking into traveling with kobayashi! I wonder if I should venture out on my own…but I would be so lost! Great posts Lori! I’m glad you have so much wonderful memories!
Thanks so much for sharing. Your pictures were just great. You really captured the essence of Japan. I, too, miss all the great food we ate!!
It looks like you got to eat a lot of tasty food and came back with a lot of great photos! I had wanted to try an unagidon while I was there but I did not get a chance to. Something to look forward to the next time that I go!
Hi jenny,
We’re also currently debating that right now. I spend a lot of time researching to try and see if I can figure out the cities, trains, etc. We did get lost a couple times while we were there but it wasn’t a big deal. We always had a map (a lot of the hotels had free ones) and people were always more than willing to point us in the right direction.
Hi betty s.,
Great to see you on here! I’m glad you enjoyed the pictures. I sure will miss our group!
Hi Kevin,
We also have our list of foods we didn’t get to try. We can’t wait to go back and eat those things and more!
I had good tonkatsu in Kyoto. We even crushed our own sesame seeds in a bowl for sauce. It was so good! Your picture totally reminds me of the tonkatsu we ate last year.
Tonight we ate at my new favorite Japanese restaurant. I had tempura udon. I like soup, but it’s so bad (sodium).
Hi Kristy,
I really liked my tonkatsu as well - very moist with a crunchy coating. Yours must have been good with sesame seed sauce.
When I make saimin at home I only use half of the sauce packet. And for the cup noodle type, I fill the whole thing with water then pour it right out. Then I refill it with water and microwave. It seems like too much dashi would wash out, but there is still lots of taste when I do this with my particular brand.
We gotta go to that new favorite Japanese restaurant of yours when we visit!
All of your reasons for missing Japan minus one (I wouldn’t understand the tv programs!) are reasons that I want to go and visit for myself! I was scrolling up and down to see which of the pics are my faves (the before and after of Hiroshima is amazing), but it was the tonkatsu pic that finally made me stop and stare. Is that it’s own wire rack that the pieces are set on? I’ve never seen anything like it! Great idea as a plate accessory for fried foods. Japan rocks…it’s all in the details, all in the details.
Hi rowena,
Yup that’s a wire rack keeping the tonkatsu’s coating nice and crunchy. Gotta love that detail oriented society. And it’s not something you hear as often as something someone misses about Japan - but their work ethic is amazing. For example, if we were in a department store and asked an employee for help, if they didn’t know the answer they would run and find the answer. Once a lady helping us was really almost sprinting…in high heels. Now that’s service!
Awesome photos! Love it, love it! Everything looks great. I’m so envious you were able to eat such good food.
I’m like you, whenever I’m on or back from a trip, I can’t pick which photos to post because there are hundreds. Haha.
WONDERFUL! SIMPLY TERRIFIC! It’s so nice to have it presented this way–a photo album on the computer. The pictures are so special. Will this be kept here forever? Want to be able to look at this every so often. We need to go to Hokkaido next time–seafood heaven!
That’s pretty cool… But now you made me really hungry! I want to visit Japan again, because when I went there, I was young, and I slept too much, because of the timezone. I love it! (^-^)
Hi Joy,
Yup, hundreds…no maybe thousands of pictures to sort through. I used up a 4 GB memory stick!
Hi Sharon,
Thank you! It should be here for a very long time. Newer posts will go up on the front page of the website but if you go to My Travel Journal on the left menu, you’ll be able to view these Japan posts. Or you can bookmark the page after clicking on the post’s title from the main page.
Hokkaido is actually where we really want to go next. Let us know if there is ever a winter (or spring) tour that you are running.
Hi July,
I hope that next time you stay long enough so that you can easily get over the jet lag. It took me several days to get used to the timezone, but even after that I still slept a lot on the bus rides.
when the yen gets better for you, it will be worth getting the rail pass and going holo-holo on your own for cheap! (that is something I can’t do because I have a visa.)
Hi kat,
We’re having a hard time deciding which cities to go to for our next trip. We want to try and find some other relatively large cities to visit that we haven’t been to in this tour. Do you have any suggestions on places to go - that are easy to get to with the JR pass?
Holo holo…reminds me of my grandma, she used to always say that.
Hi Lori,
Thank you for the invite to view your (or our ) trip to Japan. Your photos are great! You made the food look so good, I am wondering if we ate the same foods. I also have told some friends and relatives to view your web site. Everyone is enjoying it. Thank you again.
Hi Pat and Stan,
It’s great to hear from you both! I’m glad everyone is enjoying the pictures.
MMmmmm. momiji-manju. My favorite is the deep-fried one with cream inside. Your pictures remind me of my trip to Hiroshima last year. I think we went to the same places, because I had/saw all the same things!
Hi Thomas,
Yup, I love the momiji manju with the cream inside too!
Hi Lori,
Now that school is finally over, I’ve found the time to view your site. I really enjoyed looking at it, and it brought back so much memories of our trip with you and the rest of the group. The food looked so ono, and it was fun to look back on all the places we visited. I agree with you on the great bunch of people we had on the trip. Take care and have a fun summer vacation.
Hi Cathy T.,
Great to hear from you! I’m so glad you are enjoying the site. Have a great summer!