Miyajima

One of the reasons to come to Hiroshima, is to visit Miyajima and see the most iconic image of Japan - the floating torii! This was our agenda for today:



For breakfast, we stopped into the train station food court which was clean and had great light options. We each picked different veggie rolls, soy bean roll, and rice rolls and had tea and traditional and matcha lattes to pair:



We took the Sanyo commuter train line south to Miyajimaguchi station which takes about 30 minutes. You then walk a few blocks to the port and pick up the JR West Ferry for a few minutes to cross the water. Both run about every 15 minutes and can be paid for on Pasmo / Suica cards. Here we are getting on the ferry and arriving at Miyajima island:





Walking along the island to the shrine and torii, we stopped to have our first set of grilled oysters which the area is known for. Apparently, Hiroshima produces 60% of the country’s oysters. They were plump and so fresh!





After about a ten minute walk, we arrived at the shrine complex entrance:



We started taking many pictures of the floating torii:







The island is called Miyajima meaning “shrine island”, but the official name is Itsukushima, with the key shrine being Itsukushima Shrine. The temple complex also is the first I’ve seen sitting over water as most are on hillsides or mountains:





You can see the tide has started to go out from the shrine buildings / docks:



We queued for a central position to take photos when it started to drizzle, but it was worth waiting for:



You could also see the torii through various buildings which we stood under to get a break from the rain:



Some folks decided to kayak up to the gate which is a popular activity:



Here you can see the water receding again and when it’s at its lowest, you can walk up to the gate:



As we exited the complex, you can see the pagoda and warning signs such as for tsunami and earthquake - we are indeed in Japan:





We walked along the walking paths that were lined with cherry trees:





There are other temples and a popular hike or cable car ride up Mt. Misen, but with the weather, we decided to indulge in snacks and eating on Omotesando Shopping Street:



We had the traditional oyster curry bread:



What’s famous here is momiji manju which is a sweet bun in the shape of a Japanese maple leaf that can have various fillings, but the most traditional is red bean. This place served them fried, baked them onsite, and had a long queue of Japanese tourists. In addition to red bean, we had custard and lemon (Hiroshima area is known for their lemons too):





We stopped at another grilled oyster spot with many Japanese patrons. My mom had the one with eel which is famous here while Justin and I split the one with cheese and another with soy butter - very oishi!:



We then bought some treats, and the store gave us complimentary snacks - you can see I had done my nails in honor of cherry blossom season:



After stopping in a café for mango sorbet and some lemon and apple juice, we headed to the ferry. This island, like Nara, is known for the sacred deer and they sent us off near the pier:



As we departed, you could see that the tide had receded enough for folks to walk up to the torii:



After the smooth ferry to train transfer, we returned to Hiroshima Station and ran an errand at the nearby department store as Justin’s suitcase wheel broke off. We also picked up our Shinkansen bullet train tickets at the vending machine. Despite buying them online, you still have to print the tickets at the station.

An option for today was to visit the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, but my mom really didn’t want to go and I was neutral on it. And because we visited the park last night in case it rained heavily today, we were able to relax at the hotel.

So we rested with some drinks and then headed back to the station to take the famous bullet train. My mom was looking forward to this and thought we could take trains the whole trip, but the rental car was the right call for flexibility and also multiplying by 3. Also, we did not predict she would twist her ankle in Kyoto on one of the many steps, so the car was helpful. Nevertheless, she’s been a trooper and we have been taking it slow.

Conveniently, our hotel is connected to a walkway straight into the train station and we inserted our tickets and waited at our platform. We are coincidentally taking the Sakura Shinkansen - so meta! Here’s a selfie all aboard in our reserved last row seats. Being in the last row is clutch, so we could have our large luggage stowed behind us instead of having to ship them in advance:



In planning the trip, there were no airports near Hiroshima that would fly to Seoul, so either we would have to double back to Kansai airport in Osaka or move further south to Fukuoka. I opted to head south for the last leg of our trip and for the train experience.

The train ride was about an hour and Fukuoka is the 6th largest city in Japan situated on Hakata Bay. At the taxi stand, we had to try a few different taxi trunks that could fit our suitcases. The winning taxi was a Prius - the same as our rental car!

Our hotel is the Grand Hyatt Fukuoka connected to a mall called Canal City. In search of food, we crossed into the mall when they were starting a light and water show which had robots “Targeting Fukuoka”. It felt very Japanese:





We ended up on the 5th floor Ramen Stadium where there were about a dozen ramen shops, but some were closed already. I suggested the one with local Japanese queued up and it was Hide Chan! There’s a Hide Chan a few blocks from my office. We had gyoza, fried rice, and kimchi to complement our tonkatsu ramen:



We are checked into our last room in Japan and my mom thinks our room numbers are pretty funny. In Tokyo, one of the rooms was 701, in Osaka we had 702, and here we have 703 and 704. My mom thinks it’s lucky number 7’s and as we make our way sequentially through Japan in 7 cities and now in our 8th city!

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!