Back within our city walls

As I am sitting in our kitchen on Sunday night, it is hard to comprehend that earlier today we were walking around Harajuku in Tokyo, enjoying a sunny Sunday morning. In some ways it's hard to comprehend what we have accomplished over the last 14 days. We went into this trip not really knowing what to expect. The guide books and internet sites we had referenced prior to the trip had shown great promise, but we all know that doesn't always turn into reality.

Although I don't consider myself "a frog in the well", I do think that I have avoided some travel experiences for fear of the unknown. I had always had a very indifferent attitude about travel to Asian destinations, but the Japan experience has opened my mind. What we experienced in Japan was far from my uneducated assumptions of the past.

Take for example a city like Tokyo. Prior to visiting I assumed that it would be a large, dirty, noisy city where everyone fights for themselves and never looks up while they walk along the crowded streets. My assumption was completely wrong. Tokyo is impeccably clean, it isn't littered with horns honking and people yelling. The locals walk the streets with a smile on their faces and laughing with their friends. And you never get harassed by anyone, in fact if you look like you are in need of assistance, someone always steps up and asks if they can help you.

The subway experience demonstrated the unparalleled respect that the Japanese have for others. They wait patiently in single files lines for the trains to arrive. When the train arrives no one rushes to get on, they politely wait while the departing passengers come off. No one pushes to the front of the line to get on the train. If the train is full the wait for the next one.

As rich as Japan's history is, and I hope we demonstrated some of that in "The Frog in the Well", the thing that really stands out is how resilient the Japanese are. We had mentioned in the blog how many of the temples and castles we had visited were not the originals. In fact many of the sites had been rebuilt several times over the years. Whether they were dealing with destructive earthquakes, fires or war, the Japanese have always rebounded and rebuilt their infrastructure.

We absolutely loved the trip and highly recommend it as a destination for singles, couples or families. Having said that, the following are our individual top three memories of Japan

(although it's almost impossible to narrow down to three...)

Bronwyn

1. Petting the dear at Nara

2. The Gold Pavilion

3. The Fish Market

Fintan

1. Tokyo Tower

2. The Zen Garden at Ryoan-ji temple

3. FC Tokyo v Kashima Antlers game

Stacey

1. Great Buddha Hall at Nara - with the amazing bronze Buddha

2. Guided tour of Nara

3. Tempura lunch with Yasu and Kotani - we ate things we would never have tried on our own

Ian

1. Great Buddha Hall at Nara - with the amazing bronze Buddha

2. The Fish Market - including those great little 5 person restaurants

3. Tempura lunch with Yasu and Kotani - we ate things we would never have tried on our own

The original intent of "The Frog in the Well" was to document our trip so that we could share the pictures and stories with family and friends as they happened. Now that it is over, we hope that the pictures and stories of our journey helps others to dream about exploring the amazing world that exists outside of their own city walls.

Raw Sardines and Football

One of the unique features of the Ryokan's that I forgot to mention yesterday is the Onsen's, or public baths. They are separated into men's and women's and are very spa like. The kids loved them.

These pics are from the Onsen at Iwaso Ryokan

On Friday night we stayed at the Miyajima Grand Hotel Arimoto in a traditional Japanese style room. The Arimoto was not as traditional as Iwaso, so we felt a bit more relaxed there.

The kids and our hostess Zhingpang

Our room

The kids dressed up and ready for dinner

The Arimoto Dinner

I have never, in all of my years of eating out seen as much food for a table of four people. On top of the dishes you see below, we had two pots of broth that we cooked two kinds of fish and veggies in, a beef dish that was similar to a hot rock fondue, tempura shrimp, two rectangular platters with massive raw oysters, rice and dessert. It was crazy, there was no way that we could have come close to eating all of the food.

Appetizer plates

A beautiful shrimp dish

Who is this guy???? Since when does our son eat RAW Sardines covered with fresh grated wasabi????

This sashimi platter was insane. We ate a lot of it and we didn't even make a dent! I didn't capture it in the photo, but they had skinned one of the fish and used it as decoration on the platter. The dish was visually stunning.

We had two of these mussel hot pots....

We were much more adventurous at this meal then we were at the meal the previous night at Iwaso Ryokan. We tried just about everything, some of it was great and some of it was, well, disgusting. All in all, we are really glad we got to experience the traditions of the Ryokans the artful Japanese cuisine.

Saturday April 10th

Today was spent traveling from Miyajima to Tokyo. The total journey including the ferry, a commuter train, subway and the shinkansen took about 6hrs. We only had about 45 minutes to relax in the hotel before we headed out, grabbed a bite to eat and made our way to the FC Tokyo football match.

This is a take off of the the very famous "This is Anfield" sign that hangs in the hallway leading out to the pitch at Liverpool's home stadium.

Pitch before the teams came out

The starting lineups

Great save by the Tokyo keeper off of a free kick

The FC Tokyo supporters. At the start of the game they sang the song made famous by the Liverpool FC supporters, "You'll Never Walk Alone".

The Kashima Antlers supporters

Two happy FC Tokyo supporters

It was a long travel day to get there, but it was a great night out. The atmosphere at the game was fantastic. Both sets of supporters sang throughout the entire game. The quality of football wasn't the greatest, but it was a thoroughly entertaining evening.

Here Monkey, Monkey, Monkey...

The Ryokan that we stayed at last night was very traditional, and last nights meal was a challenge for all of us. Having been sick earlier the same day, I can tell you that experimenting with Japanese cuisine was not high on my wish list. There was a lot of really strange looking and strange tasting food on the table. Even with all of the strange stuff in front of us, I thought we had a great attitude about it and we tried what we were comfortable with. When we got back to the room Fintan had three peanut granola bars before going to bed….

Our decision to have the “western style” breakfast the next morning was not a difficult one to make.

After breakfast we made the short walk up to the start of the cable car ropeway that takes you up to Shishiiwa observatory.

Waterfall outside our bedroom window

It was raining by the time we got to the cable car, but we didn’t care. All we cared about was seeing the wild Miyajima Snow Monkeys that hang out at the Mt. Misen observatory.

To get to Mt. Misen, the highest point on Miyajima, you have to hike about 30 minutes from the Shishiiwa station.

View from the cable car on way up to Shishiiwa station

View from Shishiiwa Station

You have been warned!

Sign just outside the door at Shishiiwa station

We checked out the cloudy view from Shishiiwa’s lookout points, then made our way up the path to Mt. Misen. About 20 minutes into the hike we arrived at some temples that are realated to Kobo Daishi, a great Buddhist priest.

At the top of Mt. Misen it was clear enough to see that the views would be stunning, if it wasn’t so hazy…. And it was certainly clear enough to see that there were no monkeys. We decided to step into the only building at the top, a small shack that had a hand written sign that said in english, “here is a restaurant”. With time to kill, we decided to wait for a little while to see if the monkeys would show.

You can see the Shishiiwa station from the Mt. Misen Observatory

"Here is a restaurant"

We polished off our drinks and figured we could kill a few more minutes if the kids had ice cream. After I bought the ice cream I took my map to the vendor and pointed to where we were and asked him if the monkeys will be here today. He looked at me, laughed, then pointed at the map to Shishiiwa station and said, “monkeys Shishiiwa”. Nooooooooo!

And so began the rainy trek back to Shishiiwa station. About 5 minutes into our walk Bronwyn slipped on the wet pathway and landed with a good thump on her tailbone. She was in pain but she toughed it out and did great to make it the rest of the way down.

When we arrived back at Shishiiwa Fintan and I raced up to the observatory to find the monkeys. Nothing……. We walked back to the observatory café and ordered some tea to kill time. Maybe they were just running late today….. We checked a couple of more times then came to the conclusion that it wasn’t going to happen today. Reluctantly we headed down the stairs to catch the ropeway down, all the time checking in the trees for a glimpse of anything that resembled a monkey.

On monkey watch at Shishiiwa station

At the bottom we walked back to the Iwaso Ryokan where we had left our luggage. We loaded up on the shuttle bus. On board the shuttle I asked the driver where the Grand Miyajima Resort was. He asked if we were staying there tonight, I said yes. He started the van, drove for about 32 seconds, pulled over, turned off the engine and pointed up some stairs. “here Grand Miyajima Resort”…. Woops.

The rest of the afternoon we spent wandering around the small village, the Itsukushima Shrine and its famous O-Torri Gate which is over 16 meters tall and weighs around 60 tons.

The O-Torri gate is one of the most photographed spots in Japan.

This is a coffee shop with attitude. I like it.

The next blog will have details of our Friday night Japanese feast and the FC Tokyo match.

A Dark Day and a Japanese Inn

Well, with my sensitive belly it was bound to happen… I woke up about 3:00 am with my belly on fire. We had a 6:00 am wake-up call due to our early morning train to Hiroshima. The moment I got out of bed things turned bad… Apparently I ate something that didn’t agree with me… So between my food poisoning and Stacey’s bug bite, we weren’t the most attentive parents today.

The two hour train ride to Hiroshima went by fast, partly because of the Shinkansen Bullet Train, and partly because I keep nodding off to sleep. When we arrived at Hiroshima we found some luggage lockers to leave the bulk of our luggage in while we saw the sites of Hiroshima.

Today was by far the most somber day of our trip. Between the food poisoning and the bug bite maybe it wasn’t the best day to visit the site of the world’s first atomic bombing. Or maybe it was….

The first thing we saw was a building that is known as the “A-Bomb Dome”, this is the last remaining structure standing from when Hiroshima was attacked by the US at 8:15 AM on August 6, 1945. On that day the entire city was virtually flattened. The A-Bomb Dome was located about 150 meters from the Hypocenter of the bomb. The bomb detonated about 600 meters above the ground, and within a second the ground temperature was over 3000 degrees Fahrenheit. The extreme heat melted or set on fire anything any a 2 km radius of they hypocenter.

Remains of the A- Bomb Dome

A pocket watch from the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. This was recovered from a victim's jacket. The clock stopped at the time of the blast.

A tricycle that a 2 year old was riding at the time of the blast. The father buried the tricycle with the infant in the back yard. Several years later they removed the remains to give the infant a proper burial and the tricycle was donated to the museum.

This model shows Hiroshima before the Atomic Bombing

And after......

The stories, sites and sounds of the museum are haunting. The idea of war in general is gut wrenching, but to see the devastation after a few seconds of atomic bomb, leaves you speechless.

Peace Memorial Park

Hiroshima has led a campaign to eliminate all nuclear arms around the world by 2020. Every year, for several years running, the Mayor of Hiroshima has sent a letter to world leaders pleading for the abolishment of nuclear weapons.

There is a story of young girl that was initially fine from the blast, but became very ill a few years later. The Japanese have a legend that says if you fold and sew together 1000 paper cranes, your wish will come true. While this little girl was lying sick in the hospital she started making paper cranes, because she didn't want to die. She died at the age of 10 of leukemia that was a result of the bombing.

Children's Peace Monument

This monument was erected in the little girls honour, and for the hope of peace for all children around the world. Every year the monument receives hundreds of thousands of folded paper cranes from children everywhere.

After our time in Hiroshima we made our way to the island of Miyajima. Miyajima is about 30 minutes south of Hiroshima by train, and then 10 minutes across the water by ferry.

We spent our afternoon and evening relaxing in our Ryokan, which is a traditional Japanese Inn. It was here that we were really challenged on the culinary side....

Our Room was fantastic.

Outside of our sitting room was the most beautiful landscape, complete with natural waterfalls and deer.

The kids in their traditional Yukuta

The food was stunning..... to look at.

Exactly.....

Another great day in our journey comes to an end.

I am now officially a day behind, as we didn't have internet service in our first Ryokan. I will post the pictures from today at Miyajima (where the monkeys proved elusive), and tomorrow back in Tokyo after we go see FC Tokyo play soccer against the J League Champions, the Kashima Antlers.