Back in Tokyo

Arriving back in Shinjuku felt strangely familiar. We were looking forward to putting our bags down for three days and to seeing more of Tokyo. This time we stayed in the Sotetsu Fresa Inn, a similar hotel to the Apa, but with an even better breakfast. Just what we needed to fuel our days. 

The first evening we decided to try Omoide Ikocha for another lane-style meal. It is similar to Golden Gai - tiny restaurants that seat maybe 10 people and serve a particular type of food. The one we picked (on the basis it had four seats available) served yakatori, so we dined on tasty skewers. It was so narrow that if people wanted to get into or out of the far end of the restaurant, everyone needed to either breathe in or step outside to let them through. We sat near the entrance, so were up and down from time to time!

We’d enjoyed our date night in Osaka so much that after we tucked the kids in bed we returned to Golden Gai, just a few minutes away. Adrian had seen a little metal/horror themed bar charmingly named “Deathmatch in Hell” on our first visit almost three weeks ago and was keen to give it a try. It was surreal. The walls were covered in album covers, movie flyers and memorabilia, and a horror movie was playing on the little TV behind the bar. We squeezed in and had a beer standing up, but it was all a bit squished so we moved on and found another bar a lane over, this time with a table all to ourselves and Beatles videos playing. We weren’t gone long, but we did enjoy sneaking in some time together. Eleanor and Leo were deep asleep by the time we got back. 

The following day the forecast was for 25 degrees and sunshine.  It was a beautiful morning so we decided to walk the 50 minutes to Meiji Jingu Shrine. Our last shrine/temple/castle of the trip. It is a beautiful location, in  the Yoyogi Gyoen gardens… a shrine erected to the memory of Emperor Meiji, who was instrumental in leading Japan into the modern age after the resignation of the last Shogun.

From there we went to a nearby owl cafe. They are beautiful birds, ranging from quite small to really big. They seem well-cared-for, they have some space to move around and are taken outside, but I did come away feeling uncomfortable about the ethics of keeping wild animals in captivity for the benefit of tourists. In the end I decided it is not something I’d do again. 

Eleanor had been excited for ages about  visiting Takeshita Street, and this was her day! Takeshita Street is a long shopping street with some uniquely Japanese fashion. We checked out lots of shops, and Eleanor was very happy with her purchase, a black dress with a swirly skirt. It’s the first time she’s worn a skirt in two or three years!

We had tickets to see the Yakult Swallows, one of Tokyo’s baseball teams, play the Dragons from Nagoya. Eleanor, Adrian and I only had a rough idea of baseball rules, so Leo who has played a baseball game on his VR came in very handy! We’d read that there’s a great atmosphere, and it is! Fans sing loudly to support their teams when they’re batting, cheerleaders lift the crowd in breaks and, when they score a run, Swallows fans do the ‘umbrella dance’ - a dance and song with little umbrellas waving in the air. It was such a fun evening, we’d all definitely watch baseball again! And the result? The Swallows won by one run. We’d left after nine innings, rather than stay for an additional three (we had a big big day coming up so needed the sleep), so didn’t see the final run. I bet the umbrella dance was enthusiastic!

Meiji Jingu Shrine.

Owls!

Takeshita Street.

A night at the baseball. 

Hiroshima and Miyajima

We’ve had so much to see and do in Japan that the blog has been neglected and this time it’s a team effort! So, Hiroshima and Miyajima is brought to you by Adrian…

The best thing for stiffening thigh muscles (even if they weren’t actually too bad!) was a good half hour's walk through the early evening, from Hiroshima train station to our flashpacker hostel WeBase in the heart of the fashion district of Hiroshima. Our room was good, hostel decor was agreeably funky, check in was fast, we dropped our bags then headed out for some food.

Research had indicated the place to go was Okonomimura, four floors of okonomiyaki teppan grill stalls all co-located in a building just a few minutes walk away. So off we went and finding it wasn't hard, we just  followed the other tourists. At Okonomimura you can get okonomiyaki (griddle fried egg and noodle pancakes, essentially) with all manner of fillings and toppings. We found a joint with a few spare seats and tucked in. They were great, my pork and shrimp with cheese was to die for, even better than the okonomiyaki we had tried in Osaka. Then it was home for a well earned sleep.

Next morning it was local history time, and of course in Hiroshima, that means the atomic bomb of 6 August 1945. We started at ground zero, the point where the bomb exploded 600 feet above the ground. It's just a plaque in a suburban street but sombre all the same. From there we headed around the corner to the Genbaku Dome. This memorial is the only part of a large trade hall exhibition type building that was left standing due to being so close to the blast (the shockwave went down instead of across at that early point). Here we met a survivor, a man who was still in his mother's womb the day of the blast. He showed us his survivor's card that entitles him to special care. He said he is one of only a few survivors still left. These days he spends his time educating tourists on all manner of blast related facts that may or may not be getting quietly unmentioned by more official sources.

Crossing the river over the reconstructed T-shaped bridge the Americans used to target the bomb, we headed into Peace Park. It's a lovely green park nestled between two arms of a river, dotted with various memorials. There's a reflective peace pond, an eternal flame, several bells, a memorial to the Koreans who died (roughly 10% of victims were Korean conscripts working on the war effort), the childrens monument (heavily covered in paper cranes, left in tribute to the story of Sadako Sasaki, the girl who died of leaukemia while attempting to fold a thousand of them) and several other shrines, memorials and statues dotted around the place. [Jo - I read and reread Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, as a child, so it was quite emotional to see the memorial. The kids and I had read it in the lead up to our original trip too, but didn’t really remember it three years on]. 

You can have a sombre but still pleasant relaxed stroll through the park taking it all in. Then we headed into the Memorial Hall, where they display an ever changing selection of portraits and stories of those who died, and have an eternal waterfall, to honour all those who died begging for water after the fires. Lastly we explored the very well presented Atomic Blast museum, which has may chilling exhibits from the time, detailing stories of the impact on everyday citizens, both at the time and over the years that followed.

By early afternoon, we were hungry so headed off for lunch. As we ate we reflected. It was an achingly sad and at times quite confronting morning, but also felt really very important that we'd taken the time to understand this unique moment in history. We learned some things, like the city was selected in part because the geography would intensify the blast, and that the decision to drop the bomb was made in part to justify to the Aemrican people the expense of developing it, as well helping beat Russia to the punch of defeating Japan (and thereby reinforcing perceptions of American superiority and power). The Americans used it as an opportunity to get real data on the effectiveness of their new weapon, which seems, well, cold in hindsight. Ultimately though, the human tragedy of it all is what lingers. It was a military target, of sorts, but so many everyday people lost their lives. It seems such a senseless loss. All we can do now is hope the world never sees such a weapon used again.

Mid afternoon we collected our bags, and a short train ferry combo later brought us to Miyajima, an island in the Hiroshima bay. If you have ever seen the iconic photo of an orange torii (gate) seemingly floating in water, that's Itsukushima shrine, and that's on Miyajima island. Our ferry cruised near for some photos, although it wasn't far past low tide at that point so the torii was on a beach rather than floating. We were greeted by more tame-enough deer wandering the streets, and enjoyed a pleasant walk through the tourist town (think a bit like Russell) towards our accomodation.

We wanted one overnight stop on our trip to be at a ryokan, a traditionally run Japanese hotel, and Miyajima was that stop. We stayed at Miyajima Morino-yado, which was a gorgeous place far enough around the bay from tourist central that it felt tranquill the moment we arrived. We knew we were in the right place when at check-in they invited us to take some yukata (a summer weight cotton one piece kimono type robe) and informed us it was completely fine to wear them to dinner. Which we did! Then we got to our Japanese room, with its lovely view into the forest surrounding the hotel, and so peaceful. We all took a few minutes just to sit in the quiet. You can completely understand how places like this are so popular in Japan, the contrast with big city life in Tokyo or Osaka couldn't be more marked.

Another reason to choose this ryokan is that it has its own onsen (public bath house) on site. So it was off with the western clothes, on with the yukata, and off to the baths we went. The Japanese bath naked and in separate baths, so Leo and Adrian went as a pair and Jo and Eleanor did the same. There is a thorough showering and shampooing ritual beforehand, then into the very hot baths. It is much like a hot pools experience in New Zealand, other than everyone is naked. But of course, being Japan, no one stares, that would be rude. Adrian wondered that perhaps one of the points of bathing naked is to gently remind everyone we are all the same in the end, we leave our status and all of that at the door. 

The baths were very relaxing indeed, but so hot we only lasted 30 minutes or so. That was plenty enough to completely sort any lingering aches from the two days riding that seemed a world away but was only a day ago!

It wouldn't be a ryokan without gorgeous food. That evening we sat down to a seven course kaiseki meal, a traditional degustation style affair with many fish and vegetable dishes dominating the menu. The oyster in custard and conger eel both stood out (very tastily too we might add) and the sashimi was incredible. We even paired it with a locally made white wine, possibly a chardonnay but difficult to tell. It was nice enough but won't be worrying Marlborough producers too much!

The only downside we discovered to our ryokan experience is that the taditional Japanese flooring (tatami mats) and futons in our rooms to sleep were quite thin and consequently a harder surface than we are used to. So we didn't get the best nights sleep. However, we did make the most of our morning, heading back to the township to explore Itsukushimia shrine (the buildings on shore and this time the gate floating at high tide or thereabouts) and then we capped it off with a ride up another ropeway to the top of Mt. Misen, the mountain that dominates the island, for amazing views across the harbour back to Hiroshima, as well as across the inland Seto sea. Lovely to get some more nature before leaving. After that we grabbed our bags and headed back to the ferry, and then four trains (two of them longer trips on bullets) all the way back to Shinjuku in Tokyo for our last stop of the trip.

Hiroshima and Miyajima provided a lovely, reflective, relaxing and contrasting couple of days - they will last long in our memories.

- Adrian

Genbaku Dome.

Ringing the Peace Bell. 

The Atomic Bomb Memorial Mound. This was the site of a crematorium, and the ashes of tens of thousands of victims are laid in this mound. 

Sadako Sasaki‘s memorial. 

Peace Park. 

Peaceful Miyajima. 

Cycling the Shimanami Kaido

When we rebooked our Japan trip we extended it by a week. This, and the kids being older, meant we had the time and ability to cycle the Shimanami Kaido. This 76km world class cycling route connects the main island, Honshu, to the island of Shikoku, crossing six small islands in the Seto Inland Sea.

The track begins in Onomichi, so we decided to break our journey from Osaka with a visit at Hemeji Castle, known as White Heron Castle due to it’s white plaster walls. There has been a fort of some description on the site since the 1300s, with the current castle built in 1601. 

It was designed for warfare. The main keep is about six stories high and has an excellent outlook for spotting approaching threats. There are almost 1000 gun and arrow slits in the walls, gates with narrow entranceways intended to force attackers into bottlenecks, and stone dropping holes - holes cut into sections of floor that allow defenders to drop stones or fire downwards onto the battlements. Genius! Or so it sounds to me. It wasn’t tested as Hemeji never came under attack. Unusually amongst the historical sites we visited, not only was it not besieged, but it had also not been bombed or burned down. 

Today it is the most visited castle in Japan. And we were just four of many visitors, even on a rainy day. Walking along the bailey, which they think housed the ladies in waiting and could easily be repurposed for troops and weaponry, we learned about Princess Sen, another member of the Tokugawa family. She had her fair share of tragedy, losing two husbands and also her only son. The first marriage was an attempt at a family alliance with the Toyotomi clan (remember them from Osaka-Jo?) when she was seven and he ten (I guess they would have imagined a long future together!). The truce didn’t work out and the families were back at war a few years later, resulting in his suicide to protect his honor. It sounds like she chose her second husband, and had a happy marriage living at Hemeji. After the deaths of her son and second husband she gave up on love and became a Buddhist nun. 

The main keep is several stories high. We wound up the steep stair cases all the way to the top for the view over Hemeji. There’s a bit of information on the history and some weaponry racks, but otherwise the rooms are fairly bare and what it would have been like as an operating castle is left to the imagination. 

On our walk from the station to the castle we stopped for coffee at a cute little cafe and gift shop based around a local cartoonist’s work. It was so good, we stopped on the way back for more. It’s a great shame we can’t remember its name or find any trace of it online. If you’re ever in Himeji, it is about 2/3 of the way down the main street on the right hand side - definitely give it a try. 

By the time we arrived in Onomichi it was almost dinner time so we quickly found our hostel. Guesthouse Yado-kari (aka Yadocurly) is a 100 year old house that the owner is slowly doing up as he rents rooms out to travellers. The rooms are a reasonable size, but the hallways are tiny and the stairs narrow and steep. Adrian and I had a sea view, while the kids had the attic, complete with trapdoor! We all wanted a good night’s sleep before beginning two days of cycling, and got it on the comfortable fold out futons. 

The next morning we were thrilled to see the sun after all the rain the day before! We were packed and ready to drop our big bags in lockers at the train station before breakfast. The biggest lockers are about $13 a day and easily fit all of our luggage. The system is straightforward - you pay for day one, which ends at 2am, then pay any outstanding amount to open the door when you retrieve your bags. Easy!

We’d looked at e-bikes and fancy bikes, but they needed to be returned to Onomichi and we wanted to drop them off in Imabari, doing the route one-way essentially, so in the end we went manual and basic. It was fine, apart from my seat which kept slowly sinking and one of Eleanor’s handles which slid off from time to time. We collected our bikes and headed straight to the ferry taking us to the beginning of the ride on Mukaishima. 

We had a little mishap when Leo, who has become accustomed to being bag free during the days (that’s what mum is for!) arrived on the island without his belongings. He and I raced back to meet the next ferry, but the lovely ticket man hadn’t seen it. We checked our photos and realised he must have left it on the wharf so prepared to catch the ferry back. As we went to step on, a man approached us carrying Leo’s bag. He’d obviously spoken to the ticket man and brought it over for us. The consistent honesty, helpfulness we’ve found here is astounding! Leo was very relieved to have Flat Bear back in his possession and I still feel a rush of gratitude when I think about it.

After the false start we began the ride. Fit cyclists can do it in a day. We did it in two, with an overnight stop at about the mid-point. The track leads across the six islands of Mukaishima, Innoshima, Ikuchijima, Omishima (where we stopped for the night), Hakatajima and Oshima, before ending in Imabari on Shikoku. I had two concerns leading into it - questionable fitness and cycling on the road, which I don’t normally love. 

Neither wound up being a problem. Over the previous couple of weeks we’d built our travel fitness walking an average of about 12 or 13km a day. In the end, none of us had the terrible muscle aches we’d expected during or in the days after the ride. We did all have a decent case of saddle bum though!

The route was opened in 1999, and was built with cyclists in mind, so the cycle route diverges from the expressway on the islands themselves, and there are clear signs and cycle lanes to keep you on the track. Stay on the blue line and you’ll be fine! The ramps leading up to the bridges are dedicated to bikes or bikes and mopeds, and have fairly gentle inclines. Signs even tell you the incline and distance so you know exactly what to expect. The bridges are modern and have separate cycle lanes alongside or below the road. They range between about 330m and 4km (two connected bridges) in length.

Our accommodation on Omishima was a cyclists hostel not far off the track. It was the perfect place to recuperate, with everything you need for a good night’s rest after a day riding - bike storage, comfy beds, clean warm showers and dinner onsite. We had thought about visiting a local craft beer brewery or shop for lemon products (there’s loads of citrus grown on the islands), but in the end it was drizzling and we were tired so we just spent the late afternoon relaxing. 

It was such an amazing experience to cycle across the islands passing through small towns, and the beautiful views of the Seto Inland Sea from the bridges. It is one of the highlights of our trip for me!

We returned our bikes in Imabari at lunchtime and were starving, so set off to find lunch. Adrian and the kids were ahead of me and had trouble finding anything open until a lovely local woman stopped, asked them what they wanted to eat, thought about it for a moment then lead them a few blocks out of her way to a yummy ramen restaurant. Yet another example of kind hearted Japanese folks helping without even being asked.

Originally we’d thought we’d taxi back to Onomichi to collect our bags, but in the end decided to go with the cheaper option of catching the train. We were all happy to spend the extra time sitting on soft seats, even if we still felt like we were on bikes, and there was a moment of discomfort every time we went to sit down! Four trains including a stop back in Onomichi to retrieve our bags and we were headed on to our next stop, Hiroshima. 

Himeji Castle and its beautiful, if damp, gardens. 

The view from our window at Guesthouse Yadocurly the night before and the morning of our ride. We were so lucky with the weather!

The beautiful Shimanami Kaido, well worth the effort!

Out and about in Osaka

Adrian is our second guest blog-writer, covering our last day in Osaka (thanks Adrian!) :)

Today began with that most blessed but rarest of things - a bit of a lie in! We treated ourselves to 8 AM alarms and I think everyone was a little better off for it, the past few days had been non-stop action and even just a few minutes extra shut eye felt like it made a big difference.

Once we made it out of the sack, as soon as we'd defrosted and consumed some tasty bread from the freezer (Osaka's hotel supplied breakfast was disappointingly basic), we headed out the door and down to our local metro station Shinsaibashi headed for today's first stop, Osaka Aquarium.

Osaka Aquarium (aka 'Kaiyukan') bills itself as the world's largest aquarium, although the internet seems to disagree (Wikipedia puts it at 12th, maybe Kaiyukan haven't updated their website in a while). I think we can safely agree on two things about it though, it is indeed very large, and it is indeed very, very good. We spent the best part of three hours here, wandering through the various oceans that are found around the ring of fire (including the Tasman Sea and even Cook Strait!) and marvelling at the seals, the penguins, so many fish, the dolphins and then we spent ages just soaking up the sights of the epic main tank (7.5 million litres!), where a vast collection of fish, rays of all sizes and wonderfully graceful whale sharks peacefully coexist. Even the jellyfish were beautiful.

Despite all the ethical concerns aquaria present - these animals would have more freedom in the ocean after all, and shouldn't their lives serve some higher purpose than entertaining us? - we loved our time gazing at these beautiful creatures who are clearly well cared for, learned a few things along the way, and left with a deeper and more abiding love for the oceans and all they contain. 

After we surfaced, it was time to hook us some lunch, so we cast our net across what Apple Maps suggested and moored up at the place nearby with the best Trip Advisor review score, a local Japanese udon noodle restaurant named Chikko-men-kobo. Next time you are in the neighbourhood you simply must go! It was a simple single room open kitchen type place where you order and pay at a machine up front, get a ticket and wait for your number to be called, but all of our meals were beyond excellent and coming in around $12 NZD a plate excellent value too. Leo's Japanese lessons at school helped out as he was the only one who knew when they called our numbers, and Adrian, who was still fighting off a cold, had the dish of the day, the "Medicine Curry" which perked him right back up, it was gorgeous!

Fuel on board, back on the metro for stop number two - Osaka-jo, or in English, Osaka Castle. One of Japan's most famous landmarks, set in 2 square kiloometres of beautiful gardens smack in the middle of Osaka, this castle played a major part in the unification of Japan under - you guessed it - Adrian's favourite samurai, Tokugawa Ieyasu. Story here goes that in 1597, a regional leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi built Osaka castle to both be impregnable and also outdo a local rival Nobunaga's castle in every way. Then he died and passed Osaka-jo on to his son Toyotomi Hideyori. A few years passed, Tokugawa Ieyasu started establishing himself as an overall leader, and laid seige - you can't be Shogun if some other samurai is larging it up in an impregnable castle after all. Hideyori's forces outlasted the seige despite being outnumbered two to one, but as he left Tokugawa filled in the outer moat to weaken the castle's main defence.

A year or so later Hideyori started digging out the moat again, Tokugawa caught wind of it and said "not on my watch sunshine" (but in Japanese, obviously), laid seige again, this time winning overwhelmingly, burning the place to the ground and executing or forcing the ritual suicide of every last member of the Toyotomi line. Man, woman and child. Game over. There's a lesson there for us all. Don't dig out your recently filled in moat, it really annoys folks. Anyway, Tokugawa Ieyasu set up his heir Tokugawa Hiedtoyi in the ruins, and Hidetoyi rebuilt even stronger again, and Osaka-jo became one of the Shogunate's key castles for the duration.

The stone walls Hidetoyi rebuilt in 1620 are still there today, and truly massive they are too. Of course, this being Japan, the rest of it has burnt down multiple times since, including the obligatory two times caused by lightning strike. This version of Osaka-jo's main tower was built in 1995, repairing the destruction the American bombing had wrought in 1945. Consequently from the outside Osaka-jo looks just like it always did, but inside it feels just like any other modern-ish museum. So we enjoyed our time exploring the exhibits, but the wow factor was mostly experienced from the outside. Great to visit and view such a key site in Japanese history, but the whole experience I'd say was not as impactful as Nijo castle had been just a few days earllier in Kyoto. You can't beat authentic interiors.

As you'd imagine, castle comparison is hungry work, so from Osako-jo we headed back to Dotonbori for a tasty meal at Creo-ru. We had two local delicacies, first takoyaki (ball-shaped snacks made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special molded pan, typically filled with minced octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion) and then okonomiyaki (savoury pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and cabbage, meat, and seafood, cooked on a "teppan" - a flat griddle - with toppings include okonomiyaki sauce (made with Worcestershire sauce), aonori (dried seaweed flakes), katsuobushi (bonito flakes), Japanese mayonnaise, and pickled ginger). Tasty as!

From there, we waddled back to the metro yet again nipped across town to Nagai Park, the location of another Team Lab art insallation at Osaka's Botanic Gardens. It was stunning. Six separate areas of the garden were lit up in  various ways, some interactively, and the drizzle held off long enough for us all to wander with ease from sight to sight, enjoying the calm and the serenity of art and nature combined in twilight. A couple of highlights for us were the egg forest, where Eleanor and Leo could drape themselves over lit up eggs larger than they were, and the field of lanterns on the lake. It was a beautiful and relaxing way to end our day's adventure.

Well, end it for the kids at least. We got back to the hotel, tucked the rugrats into bed, and then Jo and Adrian headed out for a cheeky wee date night. It's occurred to us that now the kids are in fact teenagers, or thereabouts, we can leave them in a nice safe hotel room with a locked door in a nice safe country without feeling guilty, so we did exactly that. I rather suspect they enjoy the parent free time as much as we do!

The fabulous cocktail bar we'd read about on Google needed reservations (reservations to go to a bar! that's new) so we didn't go there, but instead found a charming little izakaya named "Base Camp" a couple of blocks back from Dotonbori. Izakaya are tiny little places, usually only enough room for 15 or 20 punters, but they tend to have wonderfully friendly staff and patrons, funky interiors, and are a lovely place to have a glass of wine or two and reflect on what, thus far, is truly the most amazing holiday we could have imagined. And we're nowhere near done yet!

- Adrian 

Our second amazing Team Lab experience.  

Osaka Aquarium, somewhere between 4th and 12th largest aquarium in the world. 

Osako-jo.