Author: himawari

After the gardens we walked over the Hiroshima castle. My understanding is that the castle is being decommissioned at the end of March due to necessary upgrades. It is uncertain when it might open again (although the castle itself will still sit prominently in the skyline, people won’t be able to go inside). Since our timing was opportunistic, I decided we could take a tour.

The castle is a replica, obviously, since the original was destroyed during the atomic bombing. It was rebuilt as a symbol of resilience in the aftermath. The interior is a museum that mostly features notable historic events, costumes, and details on the building of the castle. The castle was very busy, I suspect due to its impending closure, and the exhibits were a little dated. Probably the most interesting exhibit for me was the detailed process on how japanese swords are fashioned. There is a good view of the city from the top floor of the castle, but like most of the exhibits along the way, it was far too crowded to stop and take photos.

Outside the castle we stopped at the Gokoku shrine and got our goshuin books stamped, before traipsing off to the Peace Park.

We toured the park and the museum with the kids. Photography is prohibited in the museum, but it’s really something that has to be experienced in person anyway. And it was not any easier for being our second time through.

It was early evening when we finished the museum visit so we decided to go find some dinner. We found a Royal Host nearby and attacked the drink bar with single minded ferocity. Also, sundaes!

Originally our plan was to take the ferry from Matsuyama over to Hiroshima, but we instead headed back to Osaka and took a day off to do laundry, get groceries, and give the kids a day of rest. This pushed our visit to Hiroshima back by a day, but we went nonetheless.

Our first stop on the itinerary was Shukkeien gardens.

Shukkeien gardens was a quiet, hidden gem when we visited some twenty years ago. Now there are signs everywhere leading to the gardens and, ugh, tourists. Even so the style of garden makes it easy to find quiet places to sit and appreciate the beauty.

The garden itself is built around a very large pond. The widest point is traversed by a moon-shaped stone bridge, and the pond is home to many koi and turtles. And opportunistic pigeons. Small sachets of koi food are sold at the gate for 100 yen. The kids had fun taking photos of the garden, and Locke had a knack for finding and photographing the fish. The park is bordered on the outside by one of the many rivers in Hiroshima.

There is a colorful flower garden near the entrance, but as we were visiting while it was still technically winter, it wasn’t as abundant as it will be in a few weeks. It was surprising to me how much the kids enjoyed the garden, and we managed to spend a couple of hours simply touring the grounds.

We stayed the night in Matsuyama at the Dogo Funaya onsen. We booked a Japanese style room, but opted out of the dinner since it was unlikely the children would handle a traditional teishoku course. We were given a thorough tour and explanation of the room, then we dropped our bags and went to explore the area. 

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The main point of interest nearby in the evening was the local shopping arcade. My goal was to try the specialty mikan cheesecake…but the store was closed on Tuesdays. With tremendous sorrow, a heavy heart, and an empty belly, we carried on. 

The other other main point of interest in the area is Dogo Onsen. It is an old, traditional bath house that apparently served as the inspiration for the interior in Spirited Away. 

We grabbed some dinner in the area, then settled into our rooms. My main objective was to check out the hot springs in the hotel. The granite room was open to men in the evening, so I visited there. Rowan joined me, and we luxuriated in several of the baths together for about an hour. We tried the tepid pool first, then the warm indoor pool, followed by two outdoor pools. Thoroughly luxuriated, we returned to our rooms to sleep. The next morning the baths opened up at 5 am, so I headed down to check out the Hinoki bath. Similar layout of baths, but the hinoki room also included a sauna. Of the two, I definitely enjoyed the granite room best. 

The stay included breakfast and it was fancy! But sadly I didn’t grab any photos! Rowan declared that onsen ryokan were the best, and we should stay at one every night. 

After breakfast we visited a couple of the local shrines and got a photo of Dogo onsen in the daylight. 

Originally we were going to visit Hiroshima directly, but I read conflicting information as to whether we could simply walk onto the ferry or not. Deciding on simplicity, we returned to Osaka via the way we came, never having once tasted a delicious mikan no-bake cream cheese cake. 

 Our visit to Matsuyama came about entirely by error. When trying to psych the kids up for places to see in Japan, I had looked up Matsuyama instead of Matsumoto. And it looked amazing! And the kids really, really wanted to go. 

It’s an original castle, one of around 12 remaining in Japan, so it ticked some boxes for me, as well. The downside was…it’s on Ehime, an island separated from the mainland by the Seto Inland Sea. Getting to Matsuyama from Osaka is a minimum 4 hour trip. There wasn’t really a feasible way to get to and from the castle in a single day and still explore the area. 

Then, by stroke of fortune, I happened to win a bursary through my employment. It was enough to defray most of the costs of staying at a ryokan in Matsuyama. And had the added benefit of letting the kids experience the whole ‘ryokan’ experience, which we otherwise would not do with our month-long house rental. It was set!

And so Tuesday we packed an overnight bag and began our long journey to Matsuyama. The train ride was the longest of the trip for the kids, but after the flight, it seemed fast and luxurious. The scenery was gorgeous as we travelled along and we spotted some very interesting sites along the way. 

Arriving in Matsuyama station, we stowed our bags in a locker, and began the hike up Matsuyama. First, we explored the third bailey – it features an elaborate garden in spring, but it was winter still. We saw the gardeners making preparations for planting. Regardless, it was an interesting spot to visit. 

Then, we had to climb the mountain. There is a ropeway and/or chairlift option to the middle peak, but it was on the other side of the park. Because we had walked over from the station, we were on the wrong side of the mountain to use it. And so, we had the choice – walk around the mountain, or walk up it. We decided to walk up it.

It turns out reaching the ropeway top is the halfway point. So we walked some more. And some more. And some more. We eventually reached the castle gates. Whereupon we had another 15 minutes of walking to get into the castle. But it was totally worth it. 

This castle is amazing. Soooo amazing. 

In many ways, it was similar to Matsumoto castle, in that it’s still largely in its original shape, so what is on display is the castle itself. There is the usual assortment of historical artifacts along the interior route: ceremonial robes, swords, paintings, rice scoops, and so on. But they were simply window dressing to the castle itself. The architecture itself, the woodworking details, the elaborate clay tiles, the fantastic stone drops and murder holes…all were very much at the forefront of the display.

Ice cream tally: 7

We had genuinely warned our children that adventures feature lots and lots of walking. But like all good children they rolled their eyes, knew better and simply ignored our sagacious wisdom. Then complained that their feet were tired. Why, we had hardly done more than 18,000 steps (mostly uphill) the day previous, and already they were fatigued? 

Our tentative plan had been to visit Miyajima and Iwakuni on Monday, but given the mumbles and grumbles of the assembled persons and their dire lack of footly fortitude, we opted instead to visit Osaka aquarium. It was the thing the kids were most looking forward to on this trip, and it was super close by, so we wouldn’t have to activate our rail passes yet. 

I feel like the aquarium had changed somewhat from our first foray here, but it has been 18 years since we last visited. I may simply be misremembering. Regardless, it remains impressive. 

We opted to purchase the audio guides for the children, which purported to provide additional audio details about exhibits. Alas, it was wasted on my children, whose knowledge of marine biology is uncannily deep thanks to our very competitive games of 20 questions. Locke dutifully listened to all the audio guide had to provide, but I think he had more fun playing with the guide itself, as opposed to the superficial information it provided. 

What I found particularly enjoyable about this visit was the maturity level of my kids. When we visited zoos and aquariums while they were younger, they would try to see as much as possible, as quickly as possible. This time, they were content to stop and watch exhibits for considerable time before moving on. It made for a leisurely and enjoyable experience. 

All in all we spent three or four hours at the aquarium, then finished with a visit to the cafe. We all decided to try to ‘eel’ hot dogs. 

Upon completion, the kids immediately asked if we could go visit again before we head home. And I suspect we will. 

Ice cream tally: 4

Our family was split 50/50 Sunday morning whether to wake up on time or to sleep in. While we waited for the others to arise, Locke and I decided we would go explore around the station.

Without a particular destination in mind, we simply wandered the area in a rough circle sphere square rhomboid lopsided dodecahedron. The area is substantially residential and the most notable feature was probably the schools. Each school is three stories tall, and it’s built on an elevated grade roughly a floor above street level, so they tend to tower over everything else in the area. 

We did, however, come across the occasional shrine or park as we traversed. The weather was gorgeous and clear, but a little cool. 

After our walk, we reunited with our wayward layabouts and set off for Kyoto. Destination: Kiyomizudera. 

We took the Keihan line to near our destination, then walked along the canal. It is still early in cherry blossom season, so the canal was a little bare. Still we found one or two brave trees starting to bloom. 

We have visited Kiyomizudera on every trip to Japan. Many of you have used chopsticks sourced from these very stores! It’s chaotic, colorful, and a definite tourist trap. As in, it has every possible knick knack a person could possibly want and at price points intended to shake every final coin from your wallet. Rowan and I picked up our goshuincho from a little shop, Locke browsed the ties, and everyone bought chopsticks as we made our way up the street. 

Arriving at the top is the namesake temple. I’ve posted about it before, so I’ll spare the details. But today we were here for Seiryu-e! An ancient festival (started in 2000) featuring an 18 meter dragon paraded from the temple and through the streets. The dragon is purported to be one of the four guardians of Kyoto. And it happens to bring in the tourists, too! 

Alas! We only took video! But here is a screenshot of the dragon being paraded from the temple to the main square. They also played actual conches to announce the parade! How cool is that?

Ice cream tally: 2 

Today was the final day of the Kyushu Grand Sumo tournament. This has been a pretty exciting tournament for us, being able to attend everyday. There were still box seats left during the week so we upgraded on Thursday and Saturday, too. On all three days, we were sitting beneath the camera, about 9 rows up from the dohyo and center ring. It put us about twice the height of the dohyo from the floor and made for spectacular viewing.

The box seats had the added benefit of being more Locutus-friendly. We found that he would stay put and watch sumo for longer sitting in the box than in a seat, because he could roam a little within the box and chat in his way with our neighbours. On Saturday, we had families with children in the boxes on either side of us, so he was well entertained and we were free to enjoy the penultimate day of sumo.

And what a day of sumo! If you’re a sumo fan, you’ll know what I’m talking about. And if you’re not a sumo fan, you won’t care. So I’ll leave it at that. But some highlights…

• I think we were featured on NHK on Thursday. We were rather enthusiastic cheering on Shohozan (a new favorite). Jenn noticed the mobile camera folks pointing our direction and talking.

• Tonight we were part of a cheering section for Yoshikaze. The guys behind us had signs and everything, so we turned our section into the Yoshikaze fan club. And then he won! The crowd went wild.

• It turns out everyone loves Shohozan! The last few days, regular chants of SHO-HO-ZAN would emerge from the crowd. Normally, sumo fans are rather complacent, so this was awesome and we joined in heartily. He won the Fighting Spirit prize!

• Ikioi beat Chiyotairyu on the final day. More insult to injury!

• I gave a smile and nod to Kotoyuki as we passed in the hallway. And I ran into Jean Luc Shimpan in the foyer while walking my son around. And Hakuho is massive up close.

• All of the staff knew us by the end of the tournament. Or, I guess more accurately, knew us as those people carrying around the adorable Locutus. But they were very friendly and quite accommodating as our son walked us around the stadium, day in and day out, for hours at a time.

On our previous trip, Miyajima was a good spot for souvenir shops. And so it was again. Only, many of the shops are the cheap tourist stuff, clearly aimed at the hordes of school children that visit the shrine with limited funds. There was a fantastic shop with carvings that would have been great, had they not been improbably large and difficult to transport.

We did find a lacquer shop and managed to get a couple of items off our shopping list. So, moderate success. And Locutus was not eaten by a deer, so…that’s good, right? I guess we’ll call this one a win.

Every day we take Taihaku dori from Hakata station to the International building where sumo is held. We usually walk the distance – it’s perhaps a couple kilometers – but if we’re in a hurry there are frequent busses that run the length of the street.

Located a block from Taihaku dori at around Gionmachi is Shofukuji temple. It was one of many temples we happened across during our early days of wandering Fukuoka. It’s a zen temple. And it’s active, though the active parts are well secluded from the visitor parts.

The temple grounds are quite popular with locals. On our first and subsequent visits, we’ve said hello to many folks using the grounds for walking, running and jogging. The temple isn’t large, but it does feature some nice landscaping, wide-open and level paths, and is relatively secluded from the bustle of the city.

We keep coming back to Shofukuji for the same reasons. More importantly, it features some excellent walking courses for Locutus. There are stairs, uneven ground, dirt, leaves and bollards…all the makings for an excellent playground. We’ve walked the steps up and down from the main building many times, trodden the simple paths over and over, and been appreciative that such an excellent location for our son to explore is so conveniently located.

 

 

 

 

The weather here has been absolutely unbelievable. After Nagasaki, we decided to take another day off from sumo and go visit Hiroshima and Miyajima for shopping.

We got off the train in Hiroshima and walked to the covered shopping arcade. We had hit up Wikitravel for the ‘best’ shopping places for arts, crafts and unique gifts in Hiroshima, which was an area near the Peace Park. We’d been there before and knew where to go. The shopping arcade is actually on the Hiroshima tram line, but since we were hunting for shopping opportunities, we decided our best bet was on foot. Besides, we’d already used the trams a lot.

We walked the length of the shopping arcade and discovered kimono shops, 100 yen shops, drugstores, clothing shops, electronic shops, video arcades, and restaurants. In other words, all the same shops we’d been seeing everywhere else. And all the same stuff we’d been seeing.

The shopping was obviously geared towards the locals, who didn’t need unique and interesting souvenirs to win friends and influence people. 0 / 1 for wikitravel thus far. But wikitravel had an ace up its sleeve. The danbara something something. The name was long, so I only memorized part of it. And writing things down is so gauche.

After reaching the end of the shopping arcade we hit up the information booth. And there on the map was the danbara shopping centre. Ha! Danbara! It was listed as a cool place to find unique and one-of-a-kind textiles, ceramics, you name its!

We set of on foot, yet again. We walked along the Peace Promenade. Belatedly, before we left, we remembered to snap a photo since we hadn’t been to that part of Hiroshima before. Phew! Disaster averted.

Danbara was on the other side of a forest. We climbed some magical steps above a tunnel and entered the fantastical forest!

The fantastical forest had a map in the parking area, and we were able to find a path that led across the mountain. Higher and higher we climbed, eventually reaching the penultimate peak! When at last we felt we could walk no further, when our energy was gone and our bodies broken husks, we discovered the Skywalk. We were saved!

The Skywalk was a random escalator in the park that runs for a good kilometer. Yeah. Weird, huh. It doesn’t actually go to anything that we could tell, but it got us down the mountain in a hur…well, it got us down the mountain. Speed was not its strength.

At last! Danbara something something! Only…the Danbara we’d read about was two stories. The shopping center was nine. We wandered up and down but found no cool shops. We wandered down the street, up the street, around the block, around more blocks, back up the tower, over some other streets. There were no cool shops here. It turns out, Danbara is the district. It’s like being told a shop is in Vancouver, vaguely over there. And try as we might, we could not find it.

Disappointed, we decided to walk back towards the station and catch a train to Miyajima. On the way, we found it! The Danbara something something! Only it sucked. It wasn’t a unique shop with blah blah blah. It was a bunch of second hand shops with some random stuff in them, nothing too spectacular, unless you were into swords. Because one shop had actual katana (the plural) and some very nice furniture items that would be impossible to transport home.

We gave up. Shopping was not meant to be. Around the corner, the tram line had a convenient stop. We hopped on the tram for the station and headed to Miyajima. When we got home later, I mapped our walk. We covered just over 10km in Hiroshima on foot, not counting the five department stores (and 40 floors) we visited.