Beppu to Hiroshima (& day trips)

Hiroshima is a lovely city.  The type of place I could easily live and work.   It’s a slightly smaller city, but it has many of the ammenities that I’d want.   It’s close to the ocean, good shopping, laid back atmosphere and easily walkable.   When we arrived on Friday, after checking in to the hotel we made a beeline for a recommended Okonomiyaki place.   For the uninitiated (as we were), Okonomiyaki is a pan fried savoury pancake like dish which is popular in this area.  I’ve heard that Osaka also has a version but the Hiroshima version includes either soba or udon noodles.    It wasn’t too bad, although both of us agreed that it would be much better without the seaweed.  Somehow the fishy flavour just didn’t work with the rest of the dish (at least for us it was a one time experience).    

We spent the rest of the afternoon touring the Peace Memorial Park and the Peace Memorial Museum which sit at the epicentre of where the A-Bomb hit Hiroshima (at 8:15 on the 6th of August 1945).   As we approached the museum there were lots of school kids asking us questions and getting us to fill out small cards with peace messages.  As a thank you for our time we received small gifts, including paper cranes and turtles.  A sobering afternoon, but well worth a visit as the exhibition is outstanding and emotional.

On Saturday we made our way out of the city to Miyajima to visit Itsukushima Shrine  (the floating Torii), certainly one of the most photographed sights in Japan.  The island is beautiful and a great place to spend a few hours just walking around the various temples and picturesque small streets.   The best bit of this place is the food!  The first bit of deliciousness was the freshly grilled oysters, almost as big as my hand.  Five per plate (I had two plates) and perfectly done with only a sour orange for flavour.  I could have easily stayed at my table all day.  Fact.   The second treat was the raisin filled moulded cakes, which are shaped like Japanese maple leaves.  You can get them filled with anything from macha to peach jam…but the raisin ones were my fav.  The best bit was each time we tried them we got to watch them being made in the mini-factories in each shop.  Divine.  

Sunday we took another day trip to the small fishing village of Tomonoura about 50 minutes away.  The village grew up as a safe harbour for fishing boats awating the arrival of the next tide.  There still seems to be a significant fishing presence including a factory where we had the pleasure of making pressed fish dough balls.   At first glance the dough looks like a very sticky bread dough, which you wrap around a bamboo rod and cook over a fire using a roatating spit like machine.  When it’s done it looks like a well cooked dinner roll…until you taste it.  Blech.  I won’t be making one of those again, the texture is like the worst cooked squid you’ve ever had.  Rubbery and fishy and moist, not nice.  We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering around the village and made our way back to Hiroshima for an evening of shopping.  Tomorrow, we’re off to Kyoto for wood block prints and Muji (Jen is excited).