Honpukuji, Himeji, & Hiroshima

After our buffet breakfast which hit the spot with western and Japanese offerings, we departed Osaka to head southwest. After a little over an hour and crossing Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge, we entered Awaji Island. Our stop was Honpukuji Temple or Water Temple, designed by self-taught Pritzker prize winning architect, Tadao Ando.

I had wanted to visit Church of the Light which is in between Kyoto and Osaka and with the benefit of a rental car, would have been easy. But apparently there’s a lack of volunteers due to the aging population and overwhelming number of visitors, it’s temporarily closed. The Church of the Wind or Rokko Church on Mount Rokko in Kobe was also an option, but the design was a little less interesting and getting up the mountain would have been time-consuming.

The main hall at Honpukuji was rebuilt in 1991 and is a buddhist sanctuary which enshrines the Buddha of Medicine and Healing. Ando’s style is very minimalist - it very much gave me Sol Lewitt or Richard Serra vibes, but in concrete. The sky was so cool as a backdrop:







The Water Temple with the many lotus flowers which are currently not in bloom:





You descend to the temple underneath which is unusual as most are on hills or mountains:



The shrine with the light coming through the lattice:



Climbing up the stairs where I had to avoid the Belgians modeling for a drone:



As we departed:



You can see Osaka Bay behind our white Prius and a view of the bridge behind the ferris wheel when leaving the island:





We hopped back in the car and drove a little over an hour to Himeji, so we could visit Himeji Castle or White Heron Castle, as it evokes a bird taking flight. It’s considered a national treasure and one of the top and most visited castles in Japan. It’s also the largest surviving example of a traditional Japanese castle as it never had been damaged from warfare.





The entrance to the Main Keep:



The roof tiles and one of many holes where they can shoot out of to defend the castle:



In entering the castle with hordes of tourists including many Japanese families, we took off shoes and carried them in bags. Here’s a second story view of the hanami picnics enjoying the Sakura:



Ornate nail covers for the nails that are affixed in the wooden frame:



Climbing six stories of the Main Keep up steep stairs:



The shrine on the top floor and views:







A model of the wooden frame with a 1:20 ratio:



More views of the garden:





Then outside as we exited:





We saw a crane as we left - not quite a heron, but it felt meta:



We exited the South Gate and crossed the bridge and over the moat:





Across the street was a fair with performances and we snacked on karaage or fried chicken and dumplings, before our 3 hour drive to Hiroshima. The 3 hours were smooth and when we entered Hiroshima city, we filled up the tank and returned our 5 day rental car to Toyota which was just one block from the Sheraton Grand Hiroshima.

As it’s supposed to rain tomorrow, we decided to squeeze in walking around the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park today and minimizing being outside tomorrow. Hiroshima was the first victim of a nuclear bomb deployed on August 6, 1945 leading towards the end of World War II. It disastrously resulted in over 400,000 deaths and injuries and related radiation effects thereafter.

The Uber dropped us off the south side and we walked up to a monument which covers a cenotaph that holds all the victims’ names and “shelters their souls”. It frames the Peace Flame and the A-Bomb Dome as well:



Inside the epitaph is inscribed: Let all the souls here rest in peace for we shall not repeat the evil.



A closer view of the peace flame:



The actual Hiroshima Peace Memorial is commonly called the Genbaku Dome, Atomic Bomb Dome or A-Bomb Dome. It’s the only structure that remained standing and is purposely kept as a preserved ruin as a reminder of nuclear warfare destruction:





We saw some late night picnickers amongst the cherry trees and the nighttime allowed for more peaceful reflection compared to what I would expect during the daytime crowds.

There’s a memorial to the Korean victims as about 10% of the victims were Koreans living in Hiroshima at the time. Koreans are the largest minority in Japan. My mom spotted it in the darkness quickly as it looks like a traditional Korean tombstone and the inscription says: "Souls of the dead ride to heaven on the backs of turtles."



Also notable is the Children’s Peace Monument which is dedicated to children victims and the statue is of a girl with outstretched arms folding a paper crane:



The story goes that a young girl who died from the radiation folded over 1,000 origami cranes and children from around the world continue to send them to the monument:



We Ubered back to the hotel and ate at an Izakaya restaurant across the street where we shared vegetable wrapped sushi, dumplings, okonomiyaki, and fried rice delivered by a robot:



It was a nice and lighter note to end the day on and after visiting 3-H’s!

Oh-Saka

Our modern ryokan hybrid included western breakfast, but for a supplement, we decided to have Japanese breakfast which was brought to our awesome room:



After driving through the Gion district, so my mom could see the historical area, we headed to Arashiyama which is known for its famous bamboo forest. There was limited parking and my skills were challenged, but we have become pros at the parking lot system and tail-lights backed in parking. Some photos of our walk through the bamboo forest which was more crowded than December 2017:











The weather was beautiful and after meandering and Justin continuously offering to take photos for other Korean families but then making me do it, we returned to the car. We drove about 70 minutes southwest to Osaka where I had spent just a night in 2017 (http://leadingalifeofcyn.blogspot.com/2017/12/osaka.html) Since it was end of year when I visited, many sites were closed including Osaka Castle, so I decided that would be our first stop.

The castle is one of Japan’s most famous landmarks and is located in a park. As it’s Saturday and peak cherry blossoms, folks were out enjoying hanami and picnicking in Nishino Maru Garden which we decided to enter rather than the castle:









As we were hungry seeing the picnickers and not excited about the food cart options, we drove down to Shinsekai Market. This was not on my radar, but had been included in top sites in Osaka per Instagram posts. I have now learned it used to be way seedier and less safe, but they are trying to popularize it with some investment in the area and other sights. For snacks, we ate karaage or fried chicken and yaki-udon with pork belly with a side of kimchi:





Then we headed to our hotel, Mercure Tokyu Stay Osaka Namba which is close to Dotonbori which I liken to Times Square with the lights and action. We enjoyed a welcome drink before heading out. We walked through Shinsaibashi, a famous shopping arcade, and down to Dontonbori. On the Ebisubashi bridge, we saw the iconic Glico Running Man sign:



We then walked down to a popular tatoyaki restaurant and stood in line for their octopus fried balls famous in Osaka:





We walked up and down Dotonbori and took a photo in front of the second iconic sign and symbol of Osaka, Kuidaore Taro, the mechanical drum-playing clown:



We noshed on Yakitori and had some dumplings covered with scallions and mayonnaise while standing on the busy street. The restaurants have over the top signs along the street. Here’s the big gyoza or dumplings on the building and what we ate:



After observing the “eat til you drop” culture of Osaka, we were full from our varied street dishes and popped into a Family Mart convenience store to pick up a Choco Monako Jumbo (our second ice cream wafer treat of the day) and returned to our hotel. Our hotel room, unbeknownst to me, had a washer / dryer combo, so we took advantage as Oh-Saka (as Justin called it all day) partied on!