To Fukuyama and Hiroshima

 This morning one of us had what the British would term a "lie in". As a result we didn't get moving until...let's just say the rest of the country was awake. And had eaten. Several meals.

The goal today was to get to Hiroshima, but we wanted to stop over in Fukuyama and check out their castle, as it is right off the station. In fact, the train tracks run through the castle grounds, thanks to the Meiji Restoration's brilliant "Let's destroy everything shogun" spree. So after a konbini breakf- er, brunch, we hopped on a train for a short ride to Fukuyama.

Fukuyama is the second largest city in Hiroshima prefecture, next to Hiroshima itself. It's an industrial city, known for heavy industry (steel, machinery, etc) so unless you happen to be nearby, it's not a place you would think to visit. They actually do have a lot of art and history. Like the guy with the world's longest fishing pole.

Ok, thats not really why he has a statue...
But it IS a long fishing pole

The castle was built in 1622, destroyed by the Meiji in 1873, and the ruins were completely destroyed at the very end of WWII. In the mid-60's there was a movement to rebuild the castle as a museum, and in 2022, with the 400th anniversary of the construction of the castle, the rebuilt castle/museum was completed.

Impressive 5-story pagoda castle

Also available in dark mode!
The northern face is plated in iron.

The castle keep was very well done. The entire inside is a museum that focuses on the castle and the town. It's very well done, with several completely-not-in-any-way-biased videos that sing the praises of one Mizuno Katsunari. Mizuno was, from what I could tell, a gifted warrior with real authority issues. In fact, it's my theory that Maverick from Top Gun was really inspired by this guy, all the homoerotic content notwithstanding. There was very little photography allowed in the museum, so we don't have any pictures to share, but it was quite well done and informative.

Anyway, this Mizuno guy bounced from army to army for a while, unable to stay with any one for very long, before basically wandering the region of Bingo (I am still not mature enough to not giggle at the name) for several years before being called out of retirement for one last case by the police chief asked by the emperor, his cousin, Tokugawa Ieyasu to build a castle. Maybe he's really the inspiration for all those terrible detective movies instead? Anyway, the wholesome propogan-tastic videos tell us his years of wandering and living with "the people" gave him these human resources superpowers to get things done. In his defense, he really did do a lot for the town, and some of his accomplishments, like running water in the 1600s, are quite impressive.

We also stopped at the art and calligraphy museums, which are on the castle grounds and share a building. The art museum was cool (again. limited photography) but the calligraphy museum...I'm sure it's just our fault for not being cultured enough, but a lot of the modern calligraphy looks like someone sneezed ink on expensive paper, framed it, and called it art. But admission to both places was a get total of ¥310, or about $2.30, so it was fine.

After the museums we headed back to the station and caught the shinkansen for a short ride to Hiroshima. Other than get settled in, the only thing of note we did was eat at Ichiran! In Hiroshima's Hondori shopping street we got lucky and arrived just before the rush. Ichiran has exploded in popularity since it really went national in the mid 2010's. There used to be a handful of shops outside of Fukuoka, but now there's an Ichiran in most every major city in Japan, and several in Tokyo. And what used to be a quirky solo ramen shop has become a tourist destination and even popular family dining spot. I say all this to express how lucky we were to get seated immediately. By the time we left 40 minutes later, there was already a line out the door to be seated.

In my Flavor Concentration Station - yes. that's what they call it

Medium ramen + 2 cloves of garlic + green onions = oh yeah. Ichiran is the reason we don't like American ramen restaurants. The broth is so good you can straight up drink it, and the dining experience is great. I only have a few negative things to say about out entire experience. One is that I don't fit properly in the Flavor Concentration Station. I had to sit on the far rear edge of the stool and carefully slide my legs in to not crack my knees on the counter,. The stations do not support 6' tall guys with long legs. The other minor issue I have is that it's so popular, you now have families eating there, but not at the optional tables, but in the solo dining area, which kind of spoils the whole quirky ambiance of the original shops. But regardless, that's some of the best ramen you'll find outside of Fukuoka.

That's about it, other than finding a crepe shop in Hondori to satisfy our longing for crepes that were denied us yesterday. We have all our shinkansen tickets for the remainder of the trip, and are heading out to Miyajima tomorrow for a day hiking up the mountain of one of our favorite spots in Japan.

A few "Only In Japan" comments for today. First, they will anthropomorphize anything for advertising. Here is...Fukuyama Castle as a chibi girl on construction barriers. 

Fukuyama Castle-chan?

No play for you!