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Hiroshima was a fairly late addition to our itinerary. With a couple of days to fill in, and Hiroshima being in the exact opposite direction to everything else we are going to be visiting in Japan, naturally we decided to head there.
Actually, I've always said that I wanted to return to Miyajima, a very picturesque island just off the Hiroshima port, so now that Isabelle is old enough to appreciate (and fend off) dears, and possibly monkeys, we thought we'd make the not-inconsiderable trek.
Due to the general ordinary-ness of yesterday's Toyoko Inn breakfast, we decided to skip it entirely, and instead get some more sleep and use the time to get our things backed and ready to check out of the Toyoko.
By 10am we were out on the street, and again made the now very familiar journey from the hotel to the Nankai Namba station. Without too much difficulty we found our way through the crowds of the train and subway stations, and soon found ourselves on a subway bound for Shin-Osaka station.
Once at Shin-Osaka we tracked down the ticket office where I was able to exchange our rail pass vouchers for rail passes, which seemed like a far more difficult and drawn out process than it had been on previous trips. I guess the fact that the ticket office was heated to I estimate somewhere in the vicinity of 50 degrees celcius didn't make the time pass any quicker either.
I think my Japanese proficiency is ok, but I'm very often reminded that it isn't. The girl behind the counter realised that I knew some Japanese, so started firing questions at me in rapid fire Japanese sounding jibberish. When I asked her to repeat, and that I didn't understand, she said it the same thing, at the same speed. Just louder. Again, I'm foreign. Not deaf.
But with the help of Veronica we finally deduced what she was shouting at me about, and we were finally on our way, with reserved seat tickets on a shinkansen in hand.
After purchasing some fantastic chicken katsu (cutlet/snitzel) bentos (lunchboxes) for the trip, since we hadn't yet had breakfast, we queued and boarded the train. Testament to the comfort and smoothness of a shinkansen journey, Isabelle quickly became bored with the scenery whizzing by at a few hundred kilometers per hour, and closed her window shade. Personally, I still get a kick out of it, but I'm not too bright, and easily amused.
For the duration of the journey I've been carrying a 75Mbps 4G portable wireless dongle, and an iPod touch, for the purposes of internet access. It was interesting and depressing to note that in the countryside outside of Himeji, at full speed on a bullet train, the download speeds that I was able to get via this tiny wireless dongle were over 300% quicker than the best internet speeds I am able to get on my home internet.
Once we arrived at Hiroshima, after a short wait we were aboard a street-car (basically, a tram) and 17 minutes later it dropped us off at the door to the hotel. Actually, it wasn't at the door as much as it was in the middle of a 6 lane main road, which we then had to negotiate to reach the footpath safely.
Reaching the hotel, we were told that we couldn't check in until 4pm, so we dropped the bags off and walked the short distance to the Peace Park. Once we reached the bridge at the southern end of the park the weather loomed and it became obvious that it was going to rain fairly substantially. Veronica and Isabelle turned back, while I (dressed only in cargo pants and a long sleeve t-shirt) and the 2 elder girls pressed on.
For the last 2 days I've been the least dressed guy in Osaka, and today I claimed the same honor in Hiroshima. Yes I know it's stupid.
With the impending rain, there was very few people at the peace park, which made photographic duties very simple. We traversed the park from the museum on the southern side, past the eternal flame, and onwards toward the a-bomb dome. As we reached the bank oppose the a-bomb dome, the rain began to fall. Not enough to make you wet, but enough so that when the water touched your shirt it would form ice crystals before it had a chance to soak in. I thought that was pretty cool.
The idiot Australian walking around the peace park in a shirt prompted one old Japanese man on a bicycle to slow down and yell "Oooh! You cold! Yes?". He laughed and then pedaled off when I answered with "Hai! Chotto samui desu" (Yes! A little cold).
With check-in time reached, and the rain not letting up we returned to the hotel taking a route along the bank of the river.
The hotel room at the Reino Inn where we are staying is on the top floor, and is supposedly their "deluxe" family room. If this is the deluxe room I'd hate to see their regular rooms. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it isn't anything special either. It is basically a cube, with tatami mats on the floor, and a regular bathroom/toilet off to the side.
You want towels? They cost extra.
You want toothbrushes? They cost extra.
You want soap? That costs extra (seriously).
You want a fridge to store drinks in? No. You can't have that.
And the bathroom appears to have zero insulation, because it is absolutely freezing in there. The plus side of this is, considering I'm currently in a room devoid of fridge, I can store my drinks on the windowsill above the bath, and they'll stay icy cold.
On the first floor, strangely in the same room as the hotel reception, is an okinomiyaki and tepanyaki restaurant. A hiroshima staple, okinomiyaki consists of a massive pile of cabbage, egg, sauce, and whatever meats you want included, usually topped with okinomiyaki sauce and mayonaise.
Last time we were in Hiroshima we had okinomiyaki, and I have to say I wasn't impressed. This time was different. Done right, it is spectacularly good. I had the mixed seafood okinomiyaki, Veronica had the "standard" which comes with pork and shallots. Charlotte had the tepankaki chicken with ponzu sauce, Angela had the tepanyaki steak, and Isabelle, always adventurous, had side serves of chicken karage and chips.
At the table we sat at we were only a few feet away from the hotplate, so we watched our meals being cooked, which the girls loved. The food was magnificent. In a single meal it has changed my entire opinion of okinomiyaki. So much so that the girls asked how late we'd be tomorrow night, because they want to go back there again.
After dinner, we went for a short walk to let the food settle, before grabbing a small desert from a nearby 7/11 and returning to the room.
Tomorrow we're heading out to miyajima, so provided the weather holds out it should be a very interesting day. It is supposed to be fine, but 0 degrees tomorrow morning, so I might just wear a jacket.
Actually, I've always said that I wanted to return to Miyajima, a very picturesque island just off the Hiroshima port, so now that Isabelle is old enough to appreciate (and fend off) dears, and possibly monkeys, we thought we'd make the not-inconsiderable trek.
Due to the general ordinary-ness of yesterday's Toyoko Inn breakfast, we decided to skip it entirely, and instead get some more sleep and use the time to get our things backed and ready to check out of the Toyoko.
By 10am we were out on the street, and again made the now very familiar journey from the hotel to the Nankai Namba station. Without too much difficulty we found our way through the crowds of the train and subway stations, and soon found ourselves on a subway bound for Shin-Osaka station.
Once at Shin-Osaka we tracked down the ticket office where I was able to exchange our rail pass vouchers for rail passes, which seemed like a far more difficult and drawn out process than it had been on previous trips. I guess the fact that the ticket office was heated to I estimate somewhere in the vicinity of 50 degrees celcius didn't make the time pass any quicker either.
I think my Japanese proficiency is ok, but I'm very often reminded that it isn't. The girl behind the counter realised that I knew some Japanese, so started firing questions at me in rapid fire Japanese sounding jibberish. When I asked her to repeat, and that I didn't understand, she said it the same thing, at the same speed. Just louder. Again, I'm foreign. Not deaf.
But with the help of Veronica we finally deduced what she was shouting at me about, and we were finally on our way, with reserved seat tickets on a shinkansen in hand.
After purchasing some fantastic chicken katsu (cutlet/snitzel) bentos (lunchboxes) for the trip, since we hadn't yet had breakfast, we queued and boarded the train. Testament to the comfort and smoothness of a shinkansen journey, Isabelle quickly became bored with the scenery whizzing by at a few hundred kilometers per hour, and closed her window shade. Personally, I still get a kick out of it, but I'm not too bright, and easily amused.
For the duration of the journey I've been carrying a 75Mbps 4G portable wireless dongle, and an iPod touch, for the purposes of internet access. It was interesting and depressing to note that in the countryside outside of Himeji, at full speed on a bullet train, the download speeds that I was able to get via this tiny wireless dongle were over 300% quicker than the best internet speeds I am able to get on my home internet.
Once we arrived at Hiroshima, after a short wait we were aboard a street-car (basically, a tram) and 17 minutes later it dropped us off at the door to the hotel. Actually, it wasn't at the door as much as it was in the middle of a 6 lane main road, which we then had to negotiate to reach the footpath safely.
Reaching the hotel, we were told that we couldn't check in until 4pm, so we dropped the bags off and walked the short distance to the Peace Park. Once we reached the bridge at the southern end of the park the weather loomed and it became obvious that it was going to rain fairly substantially. Veronica and Isabelle turned back, while I (dressed only in cargo pants and a long sleeve t-shirt) and the 2 elder girls pressed on.
For the last 2 days I've been the least dressed guy in Osaka, and today I claimed the same honor in Hiroshima. Yes I know it's stupid.
With the impending rain, there was very few people at the peace park, which made photographic duties very simple. We traversed the park from the museum on the southern side, past the eternal flame, and onwards toward the a-bomb dome. As we reached the bank oppose the a-bomb dome, the rain began to fall. Not enough to make you wet, but enough so that when the water touched your shirt it would form ice crystals before it had a chance to soak in. I thought that was pretty cool.
The idiot Australian walking around the peace park in a shirt prompted one old Japanese man on a bicycle to slow down and yell "Oooh! You cold! Yes?". He laughed and then pedaled off when I answered with "Hai! Chotto samui desu" (Yes! A little cold).
With check-in time reached, and the rain not letting up we returned to the hotel taking a route along the bank of the river.
The hotel room at the Reino Inn where we are staying is on the top floor, and is supposedly their "deluxe" family room. If this is the deluxe room I'd hate to see their regular rooms. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it isn't anything special either. It is basically a cube, with tatami mats on the floor, and a regular bathroom/toilet off to the side.
You want towels? They cost extra.
You want toothbrushes? They cost extra.
You want soap? That costs extra (seriously).
You want a fridge to store drinks in? No. You can't have that.
And the bathroom appears to have zero insulation, because it is absolutely freezing in there. The plus side of this is, considering I'm currently in a room devoid of fridge, I can store my drinks on the windowsill above the bath, and they'll stay icy cold.
On the first floor, strangely in the same room as the hotel reception, is an okinomiyaki and tepanyaki restaurant. A hiroshima staple, okinomiyaki consists of a massive pile of cabbage, egg, sauce, and whatever meats you want included, usually topped with okinomiyaki sauce and mayonaise.
Last time we were in Hiroshima we had okinomiyaki, and I have to say I wasn't impressed. This time was different. Done right, it is spectacularly good. I had the mixed seafood okinomiyaki, Veronica had the "standard" which comes with pork and shallots. Charlotte had the tepankaki chicken with ponzu sauce, Angela had the tepanyaki steak, and Isabelle, always adventurous, had side serves of chicken karage and chips.
At the table we sat at we were only a few feet away from the hotplate, so we watched our meals being cooked, which the girls loved. The food was magnificent. In a single meal it has changed my entire opinion of okinomiyaki. So much so that the girls asked how late we'd be tomorrow night, because they want to go back there again.
After dinner, we went for a short walk to let the food settle, before grabbing a small desert from a nearby 7/11 and returning to the room.
Tomorrow we're heading out to miyajima, so provided the weather holds out it should be a very interesting day. It is supposed to be fine, but 0 degrees tomorrow morning, so I might just wear a jacket.
- comments
Helen Continuing brilliance Andrew!! Loving this & feeling like I'm there with you guys