Night in Horoshima..and avoiding a typhoon

Day 11 - Night in Horoshima..and avoiding a typhoon

Hiroshima

Tuesday, 8 July 2014

This was a bit of a mission of a travel day. I think it was 5.5 hours to Hiroshima. Two trains and we changed to a Shinkansen partly though the trip.

We packed up and checked out and caught a taxi to the station. We then headed through the underpasses to a shopping mall called Porte to find Blue Monday which is a coffee stand, run by a Japanese man called Tommo who used very similar beans to our friends at Curio. I enjoyed his chilli dog ( I know..strange for breakfast - but it was there!) and the boys I think had toast.

What should have been easy finding the Sheraton at Hiroshima wasn't easy...because we exited via the local trains exit not the Shinkansen exit ..so we ended up the wrong end of the station. So all the way back again and there was the Hotel..right next door. When we booked the booking system said that they had no more non smoking rooms but in the notes I requested a non smoking..and it worked..they gave us one! It was on a lower floor which a nothing flash view over the train station but Bruce enjoyed watching the Shinkansen come and go.

We unpacked, packed up our raincoats and headed out with cameras in tow. There is a walking underpass that goes under the station. The Shinkansen exit, and the Sheraton and Granvia hotels ate on the North side of the station and the town is on the South. There is a very good tram system. I really liked Hiroshima as a city..it seems to have nicer architecture and it pretty with it's river aspect (which I think every city we have been too bar Tokyo enjoys). We went up to the Famous A Bomb dome and walked around the peace park including having a look at the children's memorial. Fairly emotional. Michael wasn't enthused at all! I would have liked to have come back and taken some photos at night.

We then strolled through some shopping streets and then decided it was time to look for somewhere for dinner. We found a place with an English menu and they put us in our own wee room but we could see out to the bar area. The room was filled with Hawaain decorations. Very strange! Great food.

We came out into Hiroshima by night which was full of colour and sound. Lots if fun. We walked through the streets a bit and took some photos and got a little list. Didn't take much to find our way back to the tram line and home..a big day!

	The Atomic Dome [Map]		Photo 1 [Map]
	A bombed Jifu [Map]		You can see the radiation shadow [Map]
	Photo 2 [Map]		Photo 3 [Map]
	Photo 4 [Map]		Photo 5 [Map]
	Horoshima at night [Map]		Dinner! [Map]
	More night views [Map]		Bike parks! [Map]
	Photo 6 [Map]		Photo 7 [Map]
	Photo 8 [Map]

---

Sent from my iPad by My Vacation HD app (www.myvacationapp.com)

A rainy day in Kanazawa

Day 10 - A rainy day in Kanazawa

Kanazawa

Monday, 7 July 2014

We had a lazy start to the day, enjoying the space and style of the Hotel room. We headed down to Curio cafe around 11.00 for a late breakfast. Apparently they change where they buy their pastries from but the went to the same place as the previous day because they knew we were coming back! So more fabulous coffee, banana bread and pastries. We had intended to go ther for our final morning..but they are closed. But they told us where to find a coffee stand near the train that we could get a good coffee from and Yuko said she would e mail Tommo at Blue Monday

We had intended to go to the museum of contemporary art but then discovered it was closed on Mindays! Bummer..because otherwise we would have organised our days differently!

So we headed off to Omnicho market and that was pretty fantastic. Heaps of seafood, some amazing fruit and some flowers.you can tell it is all fresh because there was no fish smell. We went for a wee shop in the mail next door to the hotel and Michael found his watch..plus it was on sale! From here we went down to see a temple past the cafe (in the rain!) and walked down to the train station, and went to pick up our train reservations for the next day (because we had had to sit separately on part of the last run). We decided to go an explore the Samurai area which I have to say that Kanazawa makes a big think in it's PR photos but it is one street..if that! They really need to tidy up their general architecture..it is very very ugly beyond the old areas. We stumbled upon an old Samurai house and had a wee look through that and it had a very spectacular garden.

During the day we got an e mail from our Ryokan in Miyajima saying that the weather was looking pretty bad including a typhoon and did we really want to come! We decided we needed to do some research on this typhoon!

When we were walking back our we came across a couple of interesting more modern buildings..and then game to the edge of the gardens and found the shrine that Sol had told us about with the interesting building with stained glass. This shrine also has a lovely garden and some really interesting sculptures of Chrysanthanums. We didn't explore all the gardens..sore feat again!

Bruce and Michael went off for a wee donut fix while I went down to the food hall in the mall to pick up some wine..and time for some more chill out ...and to do typhoon research! We decided it was a real threat and if it arrive when it should would hit in day two of our Miyajima time. We had intended to spend two nights on Miyajima and day trip to Hiroshima to see the peace park but after a bit of research we decided staying in Hiroshima in a really solid building might be better! I had remembered that Hiroshima hadn't inspired me for hotel choice at our price point but I managed to secure a good size room at the sheraton for a very reasonable price. These hotel booking sites are always frustrating it you are booking for three as you never knew what they are going to charge for an extra bed. Bookings done..dinner time. As I have been writing this I think we skipped lunch as we started the day so late!

This night was out one bad choice for dinner (I'm writing this a week later and it's still true). We had decided to have sushi as we were in Kanazawa who has access to such great seafood. We thought that the place we were eyeing up was too expensive (in retrospect we should have gone there) and ended up going to a place that was open in the market. It was pretty a pretty ropey meal! But no kne got sick..just not a pleasant meal.

	Omicho Marker [Map]		Omicho market [Map]
	Omicho market [Map]		Omicho market [Map]
	Little pottles of salad at the market [Map]		Crabs at the market [Map]
	Market fruit [Map]		A few flower stores [Map]
	View through the market [Map]		Local temple [Map]
	Photo 1 [Map]		Kids who just left the kindy attached to the templ [Map]
	Samurai area [Map]		Photo 2 [Map]
	A Jesus statue ( I think) [Map]		A church [Map]
	Modern building. [Map]		Another interesting piece of architecture [Map]
	Photo 3 [Map]		Photo 4 [Map]
	Photo 5 [Map]		Photo 6 [Map]
	Photo 7 [Map]		Photo 8 [Map]
	Photo 9 [Map]		View of the Sea of Japan from the 16th floor of th [Map]

---

Sent from my iPad by My Vacation HD app (www.myvacationapp.com)

Discovering coffee, old Kanazawa and some shopping

Day 9 - Discovering coffee, old Kanazawa and some shopping

Kanazawa

Sunday, 6 July 2014

When it came to breakfast we couldn't face laying hotel prices for the breakfast buffet so went out to try and find something. There is a Starbucks downstairs and of course that is NOT an option. Lots is wandering later and after rejecting lots of donut places (to Michael's disgust) instint took us down a side street over the road. And we found a sign that said Seattle Style coffee! Sol and Yuko have moved to Kanazawa and set up Curio Espresso. They even knew how to serve a flat white! So we enjoyed Yuko's banana bread and some pastries, great coffee and conversation.

We bought a pus pass (conveniently there is a sale post in our building)-and headed into to the JR station and to the Information centre with it's English speaking help. We wanted to go to the Ninja Temple and it needed a booking so we got them to do that for us. We headed off to the Higashi Chaya area on the bus. Chaya is a traditional place of feasts and entertainment, where geisha (traditional female Japanese entertainers) have been entertaining people by performing dances and playing Japanese traditional musical instruments since the Edo period. The central part of Kanazawa was dotted with a number of chaya houses in the past. These chaya houses were moved into four districts distant from the central part in 1820. The largest one of the chaya districts in Kanazawa is the Higashi Chaya district.

Here is an extract from the Kanazawa tourism website. The construction of two-story houses except chaya houses was prohibited in the Edo period. A chaya house is characterized with a beautiful lattice called "kimusuko" on the outer side of the first floor and Japanese-style guestrooms located on the second floor. When you enter back streets, you will soon find a maze of continuous alleys. The historical rows of this teahouse town along with Kyoto's Gion and Kanazawa's Kazue-machi have been designated as Japan's cultural assets. There are no other chaya districts designated as Japan's cultural assets. The district includes facilities where you can see the interior of a chaya house that was built 180 years ago. Besides, quite a few old buildings have been renewed into restaurants, teahouses, and souvenir shops.

We enjoyed browsing around here, exploring some of the shops. We saw nests of swallows under some if the eaves! We enjoyed lunch in a tea house/cafe..traditionally they just serve tea, coffee and cake but you can often get a toasted sand which which is what we enjoyed. Often the cafés have boxes or baskets beside the table which you put your bags in which is a very nice idea! We jumped on the bus to head for the temple district and the Ninja temple. Actually this temple never had Ninja's but it has all the tricks that you would relate with Ninja. We got to the area early and were up across the bridge. This part of Kanazawa is quite boring (like much of Kanazawa ) and ugly. We had crossed the bridge and a saw a man picking up the off piece of rubbish. Later on he came up to I - I think he guessed we were going to the temple and pointed us in the right direction. He kept walking with us..and then pointed us down the street we were to go - we thanked him and walked on. We were very early but we wanted to locate the temple and then come back. We found what we thought was it and Bruce started taking photos but then I saw our man waving to us from another one. To out this into context..this street had temples both sides every 10-20 metres or so! This IS the temple district! Nothing is signposted in English. We thanked our 'guide' and explained to him that our booking wasn't until later and we went off for an explore. After our tour our 'guide ' was there too...I think he had brought some other people up. I suspect he just looks for lost tourists and points them in the right direction.

The temple tour is in Japanese only but they give you a written guide that isn't too bad. We weren't able to take photos but it was great to see all the secret rooms and tricks and traps to keep the feudal lord safe and ward off attackers.

After the tour we headed for a shopping district...Michael desperately wanted to buy a watch. He has lost the lively Fossil that Bruce bought him and up until now has been uninterested in wearing a watch and was quite happy for other people to tell him the time. He was getting frustrated during the holiday not knowing what the time was. We found one mall that was clearly about at the young and trendy...and it was sale time. What a noise! sales girls were standing outside each store yelling through loudhailers what I assume were the specials. Definately time to leave!

We needed up finding some areas that were much more interesting for us and it is nice to see another side of life. I didn't really enjoy this city apart from it's older areas and the garden/ castle from a look and feel perspective but it is still good to see how things are I'm another country. After browsing the shops it was time to head back to the hotel for some wine and cheese before dinner.

For dinner we unsuccessfully looked for somewhere. There is a nice looking mall over the road which had nice restaurants but they were more than we wanted to pay. We ended up finding an American/Mexican place and had incredible soft tacos. Though Bruce got carried away with the chilli sauce which was amusing. We had desert at the Italian cafe over the road and on the edge if the market.

	Kanazawa train station [Map]		The loop bus..not just for tourists [Map]
	Photo 1 [Map]		Photo 2 [Map]
	Higashi Chaya [Map]		Photo 3 [Map]
	Photo 4 [Map]		Photo 5 [Map]
	Photo 6 [Map]		Photo 7 [Map]
	Photo 8 [Map]		Photo 9 [Map]

---

Sent from my iPad by My Vacation HD app (www.myvacationapp.com)