LVT: April 2017

You’ll be glad to hear that this is a much shorter blog post than the last. Hiroshima was a whistle stop tour that we just about managed to squeeze into our schedule. Just over 24 hours we had to explore the city and Itsukushima (Miyajima) Island and we just about fitted it into that time frame. We left Kyoto early on Thursday morning and boarded the Shinkansen, otherwise known as the bullet train, to Hiroshima which Danny was very excited about. It takes only 1 hour and 40 minutes on the Shinkansen as opposed to just over 7 hours by bus; a little more expensive but a no brainer for those on a tight schedule such as ourselves. The Shinkansen travels at speeds of over 200km an hour but feels just like a normal train - only a lot cleaner, really friendly staff and a hell of a lot more leg room than that of East Midlands Trains.

Straight off of the bullet train, we left our bags in the lockers at Hiroshima station and got on a streetcar (tram) to Miyajimguchi Station to board a ferry over to Miyajima Island. The sunshine of Kyoto unfortunately had not followed us to Hiroshima and it was absolutely pouring by this point, but we were determined to just get on with it and not let it dampen our spirit. We wandered through Omotesando Street which is lined with food vendors and souvenir shops. Oysters are a local delicacy here along with maple shaped cakes filled was various flavours so of course we had to have some of both. Danny had an oyster curry bun which is basically a curry filled doughnut with two oysters stuffed in there for good measure. Curry buns are pretty standard around Japan and as strange as they sound they are absolutely delicious!

We went ahead with our plans to hike up Mt Misen despite the downpour and just powered on through. It is only a 2.5km hike but full on steep steps pretty much the entire way up, so slightly more strenuous than I had anticipated but totally achievable. About two thirds of the way up there is a gorgeous view out to the sea and of the rest of the island below but from the top the weather got one over on us and it was just a complete white wash of clouds, we even had a bit of snow up on top of the Observation deck. The wind picked up pretty quickly so we headed back down, via Daisho-in temple and back down into the main town for a couple more snacks and to see Itsukushima Shrines famous Great Torii gate - the “floating gate”. When we had arrived on the island it was low tide so there were people underneath the gate in the sand and it was absolutely heaving; but closer to 5pm and the tide had come in quite nicely and we could see the gate “floating” in all it’s glory with the gloomy sky overhead. I am really glad that despite the weather being a bit against us we still had a great time on the hike and could get some surprisingly good photos of the day.

We were absolutely sopping by this stage and so decided to hop on the ferry and train back and go to our hotel to check in. We had chosen to stay in a capsule cube as it really is something you should experience in Japan I think, and we really lucked out with this one. It was super cheap and so incredibly clean. Males and females have separate floors and you walk into a hallway lined with these little rooms with a concertina door. Once inside you have a little desk and a wardrobe with a lock and then a boxed off bed with a curtain. It sounds really stange but it was actually really nice. You climb into your bed and there is a light in there, air con, power plugs and even a tv with a headset connection to ensure peace and quiet for everyone else on the corridor. Not only that, but they also provided a basket with pyjamas, slippers, towels and all the toiletries you could need for your nights stay. All of this for around £22. Amazing!

Once we had settled in and dried off we went out for dinner to Hassei, an okonomiyaki restaurant that we had read about in our Lonely Planet Japan guide. Okonomiyaki is really popular in Japan. It is basically a savoury pancake with pork, cabbage, fish flakes and different herbs and spices topped with BBQ sauce and mayonnaise. I’m not a fan but Danny absolutely loves it. Hiroshima have a slightly different take on it. Instead of having everything mixed in together to make one big pancake, they have a thin pancake on the top and underneath and then fill it with cabbage, pork and either udon (thick) or soba (thin) noodles. Danny said it was the best okonomiyaki he has ever had. I had yakisoba which is soba noodles with cabbage and pork and BBQ sauce which was really yummy and super filling. The portions were huge and the prices extremely cheap, we sort of dropped into a food coma after finishing our meals and so headed back for a nice sleep in our capsule.

Friday morning rolled around and we treated ourselves to a lovely lie in. All of this walking; early mornings and late nights is starting to take it’s toll so we definitely needed a good rest and a recharge of our batteries. We jumped on a streetcar back to Hiroshima Station to put our bags in a locker (incredibly handy) and then onto another streetcar to the Atomic Bomb Dome. Japan may have some strange rules but if there is one thing they do fantastically, it is the public transport. Buses/trains/streetcars/ferrys - absolutely everything is always bang on time, super regular and full of friendly and helpful staff, we cannot fault it at all.

It didn’t take long for us to explore the main sights in Hiroshima at all. First was the Atomic Bomb Dome, followed by the Peace Memorial, Hiroshima Castle and Shukkei-en. I obviously knew the situation surrounding the atomic bomb attack but I didn’t know much about the dome itself. It has had 4 restoration projects between 1990 and the current day in order to keep the remains in good condition to remind the people of the destruction that nuclear weapons can cause. When you get to the Peace Memorial you can see the Peace Flame and the Atomic Bomb Dome through it. Everywhere you go in the city there is a reminder of the need of peace in the world through memorials, statues and the Peace bell. We read on one of the plaques that the thought behind the Peace Flame is that it will stay lit until a time when nuclear weapons are no longer something that is used.

We then arrived at Hiroshima Castle and through to Shukkei-en gardens where there were the most cherry blossoms we had seen thus far. They had completely bloomed and just covered theoutside of the castle and lined the canal, it was so so beautiful. I really hoped we get to see them in bloom in Tokyo too, we were just a little bit too early in Kyoto to get the best view of them. And just like that, another place on our travels in Japan is done. As I type this I am sat on the bullet train to Osaka ready for another quick city tour. We are planning on meeting up with a group of our friends from Niseko there so are super excited for that and to get to explore another part of Japan. Until then…

5 Story Pagoda in Miyajima

Floating Torii Gate

View of the mountain that we climbed.

The very cloudy view from the top of Mt Misen.

The marginally less cloudy view a little bit further down.

The worlds biggest rice scoop...

One of the many streetcars that made travelling around Hiroshima SO easy.

Downtown Hiroshima at Night.

The Atomic Bomb Dome.

The Peace Bell.

Hiroshima Peace Park Memorial.

Hiroshima Castle.

Finally the day to start travelling and exploring the real Japan arrived and we were super keen to get going. Unfortunately our bus out of resort wasn’t until early afternoon so we had a lot of time to kill in our accommodation - I swear to God it was the longest 4 hours of my life. We just travelled to Tokyo for the first evening and stayed in the airport hotel. It just made the whole experience of getting to Kyoto without being exhausted, much much easier. Two hours of flight delays and we made it safely and ready for a good nights sleep before our flight to Kansai early the next morning. Without a hitch we were up in the air and back down again before we even really knew it. Flying domestically within Japan is so quick and easy, it’s going to be a shock to the system landing in the UK and having to go through all the passport control that’s for sure!

So once we had arrived in Kansai airport, we managed to figure out the train system relatively painlessly and hopped on the next train to Kyoto to get to our hostel. Tiny rooms seem to be the norm in Japan, but the location was absolutely incredible so no complaints from us. We dumped our bags and headed straight out armed with our map. We grabbed an onigiri (seaweed covered rice ball with miscellaneous filling), a couple fo beers and began our trek up to the Imperial Palace. Of course I had completely dropped a ball on this days itinerary because the Palace quite clearly shuts at 4.20pm and it was at this point almost 5pm. Instead we enjoyed our little picnic in the beautiful sprawling grounds and moved onto the first of many shrine visits. Chion-in, a Buddhist Temple in Higashiyama was pretty impressive. We could only gaze upon it from the outside as it was the evening but that was more than enough. There’s something pretty majestic about the shrines when they are in the glow of the evening light, Yasaka Shrine in particular was quite something. It is on a sort of complex with lots of sub shrines and lanterns alongside food vendors and gift shops. It’s a bit strange seeing a temple/shrine, something that should be quite a peaceful and religious place and see all of these souvenir vendors etc.

By this point it was somehow already almost 7pm so we headed back in the direction of downtown to explore Nishiki Market - it was absolute mayhem, you were just sort of swept up in a tidal wave of people, madness. There were some really interesting (weird) foods on offer for those brave enough to try; the most interesting (weird) being a bright red mini octopus with a quail egg shoved up in its head. Not quite up my street, an acquired taste I’m sure. Continuing down through the market we then sought out a tiny little craft beer place, hidden down one of the many alleyways branching off of the main streets. Ran by an English guy, there were only about 10 seats in the whole place and a wide selection of Japanese beer to try, super tasty if a bit pricey. We were getting pretty hungry by this point in the evening and decided to go for dinner at Musashi Sushi, a highly recommended sushi train in the centre of the city. Every item of food was just ¥146 (around £1) and there was so much choice. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of fish, I was really impressed at how much there was that I was intrigued by and actually enjoyed eating. Of course Danny is the more adventurous out of the two of us when it comes to food, so between both of us we probably had everything on offer. Full stomachs and sleepy heads we headed back for a relatively early night, ready for a big day of walking on Monday.

And what a big day of walking it was. Almost 30km in the end. We started off in Southern Highashiyama and followed a route of shrines all the way up to the very Northern end of Higashiyama. Our first stop was Kiyomizudera, a temple set in huge grounds and lots of little areas to explore. It was such a beautiful setting and made for the most gorgeous breakfast views. It is here that we purchased our Goshuincho and got our first red seal. For those who haven’t seen my instagram post, a Goshuincho is a big notebook that you fill with unique red seal & calligraphy individual to each shrine. Once the book is full, it concertinas out making a piece of art with all different stamps - such a unique gift and something that I’ve become pretty obsessed with over the past 3 days. Then there was Kodai-ji, Heian Shrine and Shoren-in. I could explain every single shrine and temple that we saw but that would make this blog post much too long, I already feel like I’m rambling somewhat so I’ll try to be a bit more succinct. Next up was Ginkaku-ji which is also known as the Silver Pavilion. It wasn’t silver. So that was slightly disappointing, but again the grounds were beautiful so it was well worth a wander around. Something that we have realised through a lot of our shrine visits is that 9 times out of 10, the grounds are so much more impressive than the temple itself. Not always, but mostly.

Late aftenoon we were absolutely pooped so headed back to the hostel for a little recharge of the batteries before heading back out to Kyoto Station. We had been told to go up to the roof of the station for fantastic views of the city without having to pay an extortionate amount as you would do from Kyoto Tower. We managed to get up there just as the sun was setting which was beautiful. We went to the 13 floor department store within the station and grabbed a couple more beers to try. Danny is trying to taste as many different Japanese beers as he can whilst we are here - I think we are nearing 40, not too shabby at all! After guzzling the beers, ramen was on the menu so we went to another highly recommended restaurant, Ichiran. Like many of the popular restaurants in Kyoto there was a queue, but due to the fast food nature of ramen there was very little wait time and we were soon slurping away in our little booth. Here we ordered our ramen on a vending machine and then had to fill out a form depicting how spicy, rich, oily we wanted our ramen to be. Once upstairs there is a flashing screen in front of you showing you which seats are taken/vacant and then you are seated. Each seat is an individual booth facing the kitchen. You can open up the partitions between yourself and the person next to you if you wish and then once your meal is served the kitchen closes the curtain between you and them and you can eat in privacy. It was such a fun experience and the ramen was so tasty. And just like that day two was over.

On Tuesday morning we had planned to go to Fushimi-Inari Taisha which is where there are hundreds of Torii gates to walk through right the way up to the top of the mountain. We had seen so many pictures where there are swarms of people barely being able to move so we decided to avoid all of that by leaving the hostel at 7am and getting there before the crowds began. It worked. There were only a few other people there at that time which meant we could go at our own pace and take some lovely photographs, uninterrupted by the masses. Each Torii gate it purchased by a company, the name of which is inscribed into the wood and then erected with the rest of them all the way until they reach the top. The price ranges from around ¥175000 for ¥1.3 million - insane amounts of money, but it makes for a beautiful area to walk through at any hour of the day so we as tourists appreciated it greatly.

Next stop was Nara. Only an hours train journey away from Kyoto, we had planned to meet our friends Lucy and Dave and catch up on the last few days. We had such a fab time! Firstly we went to Kofuku-ji (got another red seal) and saw the famous 5 story pagoda - definitely one of my favourite structures in Kyoto so far! And then it was onto the piece de resistance, the creme de la creme; The Todai Ji which houses the Great Buddha. This bronze statue of the Buddha is the biggest one in the world and it’s head it something crazy like 14m wide! From here on out we just wandered through Nara, through the shrines and the ever beautiful gardens and of course petted the wild deer. They are absolutely everywhere! On every street corner there is a little old lady selling these special deer biscuits for you to feed them and they come up to you and frantically nod their head by means of asking for food. Definitely more domesticated than the vicious deer at Boughton House in Kettering! You can guess what came next… beers in the park with Lucy and Dave and just reminiscing on the season. We then headed back to Kyoto for another steaming bowl of ramen for dinner, this time at Ippudo. If I’m comparing it with Ichiran then Ippudo wins hands down for taste, but the overall experience was a lot more fun at Ichiran.

Wednesday, our final day in Kyoto and we had a fair amount still to fit in so it was another early start on the train to Arashiyama. Arashiyama is known for it’s beautiful bamboo grove and once again it was one of those places that you really want to get to before the crowds descend. It appeared that this was a popular place too for wedding photographs and we saw four different couples having shots taken in their wedding dress and suits. I think maybe it’s a thing in Japan to get married and then travel around to popular destinations for photographs as we saw this at the Fushimi Inari Taisha too. Tenryu-ji was next on the list, and I think that this one is my favourite shrine so far. We didn’t actually go inside but the gardens were just absolutely gorgeous. So much cherry blossom and a big pond full of koi carp, it was so peaceful just to walk around and take it all in. We continued to make our way through Arashiyama, stopping at different shrines and got in the rather long line at % Arabica which is supposedly the most amazing coffee in Kyoto. As someone who isn’t the biggest fan of coffee (unless it’s full of sugar and syrup) I’m not really one to comment, but I’m assured it was “pretty tasty” so I guess it was worth the 30 minute wait. We walked over Togetsukyo bridge and enjoyed our coffee with a view and made our plan of action to see the remaining three sights left on the list.

Kinkaku-ji was first up, also known as the Golden Pavilion - and unlike the Silver Pavilion, the Golden Pavilion lived upto it’s name by actually being gold. The entire two floors in fact are covered in gold leaf and have been rebuilt twice over the years, the latest of which as a result of being burnt down by a monk! Crazy! Then it was back on another train to Imperial Palace to try and have a look round when it was actually open. I would say that this was the place that disappointed me the most out of everywhere that we have seen so far. In a city that is full of grand buildings and beautiful shrines, I was quite surprised as to how plain and unexciting the Imperial Palace was; it is definitely outshined by it’s grounds - like a lot of places in Kyoto I suppose. The final sightseeing stop of the day was Nijo castle which was like being in a game of Crystal Maze - I had no bloody idea how to get out of the place! The grounds were absolutely ginormous and there were so many buildings to look through - my favourite being the one with the “Nightingale Corridor” which is named due to the fact that when you walk on the floorboards, the creaking sound is similar to that of a nightingales song. Once we eventually found the exit, we headed back for a quick rest at the hostel and then out to dinner at a cool little Izakaya place. Izakaya is basically Japanese tapas food; so yakitori (meat skewers), gyozas (dumplings) meat & rice bowls, noodles etc. At this particular restaurant we had decided to go to everything on the menu was ¥280 including the drinks. So we filled our face with a little bit of everything, all washed down with some plum wine and that was our time in Kyoto at an end. But not before we got to see a real Geisha wandering through the streets of Gion. Perfect.

Our next destination has a lot to live up to, but I’m really hoping it doesn’t involve half as much walking - I don’t know if my little legs can take another week of 20km days…