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!

Riding the Hello Kitty Train to Onomichi

 Well, to Fukuyama. then a local train to Onomichi.

Skipped running this morning so Sumi and I could walk up the mountain at the Fushimi Inari Taisha shrine again, this time without tourists. We caught the first train down to Inari at 5:30 and got there at about 5:45. There were a handful of tourists and a bunch of locals getting their exercise in. The exercise ranged from old ladies walking up the mountain faster than we could to this one guy running up and down the mountain wearing the flattest of sandals. The slapping sound he made with each step made my joints hurt just hearing them.

It was a cool, quiet, and pleasant hike up the mountain to the shrine at the top and back down again. By 7:00 we were back down and ready for some breakfast. 

Obligatory picture of the torii

Most of Sumi's pictures were of the Guardians of the Shrine.

We have not had good luck with finding restaurants so far this trip. There are a lot that closed down during the pandemic, but still zombied on the Internet. We tried three different places for breakfast this morning. Two were gone, the third was a "smoking cafe" that smelled like a 1970's bowling alley when the door opened. We (meaning I) caved and we went to a different McDonald's away from the station. It was food, and it was a place to sit and eat while we planned our day. My goal is to find at least a bakery that opens early for the rest of the trip.

Today's trip was done entirely so that Sumi could experience the fabled Hello Kitty Shinkansen (HKS). It debuted in June of 2018 and was supposed to just be a temporary PR stunt for a few months and end that September. It was such a hit that Japan Railways just kept it, and now it runs once a day on rotating routes. Sumi had meticulously planned this day, and we decided to visit the seaside town of Onomichi today, because that was a good destination for today's HKS.

So we hopped on a regular shinkansen to get to Shin-Osaka, where HKS would be departing from. The number of giddy-as-a-schoogirl middle-aghed obasans with their phones out filming the arrival of the train like a rock star coming to town was ridiculous. Needless to say, Sumi fit right in, though she was the only one I saw to have the good decency to look slightly embarrassed about it :-)

The main passenger area was fairly subdued and muted but...

Car 1 is all about Kitty-chan merchandise. And also the color pink.

There's a place for children to get their pictures taken with Hello Kitty

It wasn't nearly as gaudy as it could have been, other than car 1. And it was still a shinkansen, so a smooth ride at a very high rate of speed. All in all, I'm glad Sumi could experience this. And buy more Sanrio merchandise. In short order, we found ourselves, after a brief local transfer, in Onomichi. 

Our only previously history in Onomichi was with the only really terrible hotel experience we've ever had in Japan. As a result, we hadn't even thought about going back, but we're glad we did. Onomichi is a medium sized village with a mountain on one side and the ocean on the other. It also has 25 buddhist temples dotting the mountain, including Senkouji, a temple literally built into the rock on the side of the mountain. We trudged through the sun and heat to our hotel from the station (about 1km) then, after a brief pause while Sumi had her luggage explode in our room, we headed out to check out the temple walk.

Speaking of the room, for reasons that became clear by the end of the day, there were very few rooms left in Onomichi, which was odd, because it's not a popular foreign tourist attraction, and we're not in domestic vacation time yet. Sumi booked a family room at the Royal Hotel, the tallest building on the Onomichi shoreline.

This is one of three rooms in the suite

Onomichi has it's own small ropeway that takes you up to the top of the small peak where Senkouji is located. 

At the top of the mountain is an overlook structure that gives you a nice view of the entire city and surrounding area

Our hotel is the tall white building

The temple is built into the rock on the side of the mountain, with carvings and cul-de-sacs everywhere. Hard to capture in pictures, but a very cool place

Chinese Zodiac built into the side of the mountain

The walk down from the temple was just as interesting, because it was basically tiny paths that wind through the neighborhood. And by tiny, I mean one person wide stairs that weave between old houses and temples. As we descended we came across an ancient pagoda in the middle of the neighbohood.

Tenneiji Pagoda (Kaiunto)

Built in 1388, this is one of the best remaining examples of late Kamakura period architecture. It apparently used to be 5 stories, but had two removes in 1692.

At this point we were very hot and very hungry, so we started looking for a place to eat. There were a ton of coffee shops and cafes, but nothing with real meals other than ramen shops. Like, everywhere. 

25 ramen shops just in this area of town

Onomichi is famous for it's specific type of ramen, much the same way Hakata and Fukuoka are for tonkotsu ramen. What makes it unique is the sardines they put in it...And all the fish they use for the broth... So, we were stuck looking for an alternative, but being a coastal town, they had a lot of fish. And not much else. All the restaurants we thought sounded good were either closed or got pretty mediocre ratings online. In Japan, it takes a lot to get a bad rating, as the food and service is usually pretty good, so we took the reviews seriously. We walked through Hondori, a long shopping district hoping to find something, but it was pretty empty and nothing was open yet (it was 4:30), so we sucked it up and walked a mile down the road to the local Coco Curry shop. We TRIED, ok?

So, the curry was delicious, I got my vegetables, and we started walking back across town to the hotel. When we got to the station, it was a madhouse. There were people everywhere, some wearing yukata, and they were all heading to Hondori. After looking for some ice cream and not finding much, we headed to Hondori and ran into a full on small town matsuri.

There was no posting that we saw (and we were looking for stuff to do), and an hour earlier this place was a ghost town. 

This is what it looked like when we first came here

There were kids games, food vendors, crafts, everything. Had we waited one hour, we wouldn't have needed to walk all the way across town for curry. We got very excited when we found a delicious smelling crepe shop, but the owner came out and apologized. He had sold out of everything and had to close for the day. Our timing was impeccable, as usual. 

As we searched for just an ice cream cone, we passed a woman holding some very elaborate strawberry sundaes on a tray that looked amazing, but were also 20 bucks, so we kept looking, but came up empty. We decided that we could split a $20 sundae so we went back to the spot only to find the woman was gone. There were, however pictures of all sorts of strawberry desserts and a hand-drawn arrow point down the block, outside of Hondori, where there was a tiny hut.

http://clown-works.com/berry01

Let me tell you, Sumi is somewhat of a connoisseur of sweet food that is bad for you. The more sugar it has, the more knowledgable she is about it. This was some of the best dessert we've ever had in Japan, and we've sampled desserts from all over the country. Multiple times. Take a look at earlier blogs for examples. Sumi had a strawberry smoothie, I had a chocolate strawberry parfait. The fruit was ripe and delicious, the ice cream was smooth and flavorful. It was far too much to eat, but we did anyway.

They also had a cat theme

Different cat stickers on the cups

All in all, I would highly recommend Onomichi as a day trip. We only saw a few of the 25 temples in the town, and if you can eat seafood, I'm sure the ramen is pretty special. And Berry. Go to Berry.

There were quite of a bit of Japan things we came across today on our many walks, so I'll leave you with a few parting pictures of "only in Japan"

No charge or ¥500? Which is it?

I always like the art they put on their manhole covers

Watch. Jewelly? BAG!!!

Kyoto Day 3 - Up the mountain and back again

Today was an ambitious one. Being our last day in Kyoto, we had a few things to check off our list before we leave on Saturday. A quiet visit to Fushimi Inari Taisha, an area of Kyoto with old-style shops and buildings called Gion where the famous Hanamikoji street is, and the Sanjusangendo temple, which houses 1001 Kannon statues along with a 1000 year old, 11 foot tall Buddha statue.

Despite all of this, I still got out at 5 for a run this morning, and ran up and down the trails along the Kamogawa, one of the two large rivers that run through Kyoto. I came back and cleaned up, then we headed back to the Inari shrine we visited yesterday to experience it without thousands of foreign tourists. It was much, MUCH better early morning.

There were still other visitors to the shrine, but no tour groups and other than a single Instagram/OnlyFans girl with a tripod doing her very own photoshoot complete with glamour shot in the middle of the torii walk, the other visitors were well behaved and respectful. We took the opportunity to hike up the entire mountain and see all of the memorial stones, gates, and nature.

Going up the mountain

And up....and up...the 7000 stairs...

Along the way, we saw some of the shrine's guardians

I thought Inari were guarded by foxes...

Nothing is blasphemous if you are a cat...

The shrine is built into the side of a mountain, and there are numerous gravesites, smaller shrines, and many more torii leading up to the top of the mountain. One of the most common tropes in cheap kung fu movies is the apprentice training up in the mountains and bathing in a freezing waterfall to reach enlightenment or just straight up sadism or whatever. There are several "kung-fu training showers"™ up here that are actually used by those who live up here (a.k.a. shinto priests)

Dragon shower head

Can you imagine how cold this must be?

As we came back down the mountain we saw the bellweather for the tourist groups arriving: students. We made it back down and wove our way through the babbling throngs that were descending on the once-peaceful shrine and escaped just in time. Before moving on, I would like to share some signage that we saw getting to and walking through the shrine.

The honesty...

I want this at every construction site!

Translation: NO ONE poops on the sacred mountain!

After leaving the shrine area, we hopped a train up to Gion to take a look at Hanamikoji Street. On the way there we were sidetracked by a candy shop that has live demonstrations of them making their candy. We watched these two women work for the better part of 30 minutes (or more) as stretched, cut and molded the candy.

The massive hook on the wall is flipped upside down when she's
done stretching the candy

As far as Hanamikoji Street, it's a cool street with a bunch of restaurants in old fashioned buildings that we wouldn't be able to eat in (fish and/or dress code). I think it would be quite a nightlife spot for those with money. At noon for a couple of cheap slobs that have been hiking up a mountain, it wasn't all that inviting.

The lunch place we really wanted to try was an udon and tempura shop that advertised vegan udon with veggie tempura that looked amazing. We walked there only to find a "On Holiday" sign in the window. All of our hopes and dreams dashed, we trudged off down the street in search of the Ichiran location nearby to drown our sorrows in garlic and ramen. Right before we got there however, Sumi spied, while looking at the "Sanrio Goods 3F!!" sign at the local Don Quixote (nickname "Donki" weird all-in-one shopping that has everything from groceries to, well, Sanrio goods), a sukiyaki and shabu shabu restaurant on the 7th flood of Donki. Usually the higher up. your go, the more expensive things get. But we're talking an upscale Wal-Mart here, so we took a chance and headed upstairs.

It was a 1-hour all-you-can-eat place, which is fairly common in Japan. Also common is Japan is there is a surcharge if you don't eat what you take from the buffet. We chose the domestic beef (as opposed to imported (Chinese) beef) sukiyaki lunch and it was very good. The broth, a mix of soy sauce, sesame, and sugar, was fairly thick and flavorful and was excellent with the fresh green and white onions. The meat was obviously high quality and tasted better than any sukiyaki we've had in the States. 

After stuffing ourselves with sukiyaki and excellent yuzu ice cream, we walked about a mile down to Sanjusangendo temple. The temple has, as mentioned at the top, 1001 individual, unique Kannon statues, detailed statues of many of the important figures in Buddhist scripture, and a large central Buddha all housed in a single building that was constructed in 1164. A fire destroyed all but 124 of the statues in 1249. The rest were recreated over the next hundred years. I could go on and on about the construction and so on, but I won't bore anyone here. They are impressive, as is the large 11-foot Buddha in the center of the very large room that houses all of them. Carved from cypress, lacquered, gilded in gold, and polished crystal used for eyes, they are amazingly detailed and well crafted, especially considering they were made 1000 years ago.

We were not allowed to take pictures in the hall, but there are some images online that I am sharing here to try and give a sense of what it was like. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that visits Kyoto.

After almost 9 hours on our feet, we were done for the day and headed back to the hostel to do laundry and get ready to leave tomorrow for Shin-Osaka, where we will ride the fabled, pink, Hello Kitty shinkansen. I will leave you with a few pictures of Japan being Japan.

Guess what this is? No, seriously*

"What should I call my shop that sells art supplies? Ooh, I know!"

* It is a place to bet on horse races.