Kicking things off in Japan..

As I mentioned in the The Journey Begins.. (go back and read it if you didn’t) The propose, or more so theme, of this trip is places I haven’t been.

Knowing a portion of time would be spent in Tokyo the plan was to get to Japan early to see a few places .

Some reading this probably aren’t aware but outside of travel, music, food & drink I also have an interest in history (religion too but that’s tied to history). Given I’d be at Bourbon & Beyond (read about that here) just days (2) before heading to Japan, my time/planning was limited. The choices I made were Osaka, Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These three places seemed like they would work well for a couple of days each.

OSAKA

Osaka seems to be kind of forgotten about. Most people tend to spend their time in Kyoto and day trip to Osaka; I’d been to Kyoto already.  

To be honest, I didn’t start in Osaka. I landed in Tokyo, and activated my Japan Rail Pass. Side note; for those heading to Japan and planning to travel around I’d highly recommend getting the pass. The JR Pass allows you to travel on any JR Train as well as some other modes of transport. After activating the pass and getting a reserved seat on the Narita Express it was onto Shinagawa to catch the bullet train to Osaka. Of course I grabbed O-nigiri and a beer for the ride. O-nigiri is availabe in the US now but on my first trip to Japan it was the go to snack. 

On arrival I couldn’t believe how humid it was. Although  all my hotels were within walking distance of the train station(s) this one was kind of far. Actually it ended up not being that far I was just tired, hot and didn’t know how to get there. Once I got my bearings I found the Osaka Tokyo REI and checked in to my nice but very small (typical in Japan) room.

Given lack of sleep for over 24 hours, at this point, I wanted to push myself a bit but not too much. Took a stroll around, had a few plates of conveyor belt sushi (another favorite) and was off to bed.

Waking up early I grabbed some coffee, jumped on the Osaka loop (covered by the pass) and headed to Osaka Castle. I wandered the grounds for a bit before heading in the castle to escape the humidity. The museum is interesting but many seemed to skipped it and go for the 360 degree view up top.

From the castle it was over to Tenjinbashi-suji, a 2.6km outdoor, covered, shopping arcade. It’s all about the culture and experience so I walked the entire thing.  Stopping for some takoyaki was a good break as well . Takoyaki is a meibutsu (famous thing) of Osaka and are ball shaped appetizers made of batter. Typically filled with pieces of octopus then continually rolled over in these special pans to cook. Once done they’re topped with sauce, green onions and flakes of dried fish. Right now some of you are like NO WAY but they’re pretty good; be careful they are really hot when they get served to you.

Ironically when traveling I’ll try anything but WILL NEVER eat hot dogs and, after having the takoyaki, passed this (pictured) stand which sat right next to a McDonald’s. I continued wandering Osaka and my friend Keri sent me a couple of beer places to check out as he’d be in Osaka after I left Japan. Happening upon the Minoh Beer owned, Beer Belly I decided to try one of their IPA’s. A good reprieve before walking around the city then back to the hotel. That evening I headed to another place on Keri’s list called the Craft Beer Bar Marciero. The place was dark, very small and held about 10 people. I had something they had listed as Numazu Craft Belgium it was really good but I left after just one beer.

I hadn’t eaten anything but the takoyaki and really wanted some good ramen. With some research Kuriyan was found nearby and highly rated. No one spoke English and I couldn’t read the menu so it was going to be a challenge. The cook was asking me questions I couldn’t answer so thanks to Googles English to Japanese, translator I showed him “I trust you” in Japanese. He smiled, walked away and five minutes later came back. The delivery was delicious miso soup (maybe the best I’ve ever had) and what I came to learn is nicknamed (I think) Popeye rice. 

Looks good right? This is going to sound strange, maybe not as strange and takoyaki, but this simple dish is white rice on the bottom with minced pork and spinach on top of it. It’s then topped with mayonnaise. A full squeezable container was provided in case mores wanted/needed.

Yep it sounds weird but man was it delicious and I imagine soooo unhealthy. Needless to say it was very filling. I tried to walk it off, even found the one, nearby, heavy metal bar. There was no way I could do much with that belly bomb. I headed back, packed up my stuff and hit the sheets for the next day’s ride to

HIROSHIMA & MAYAJIMA

Now unlike Osaka for Hiroshima there was somewhat of a plan. That being spending one day in Hiroshima and the next day in Miyajima

Hiroshima was all about the history. I wanted to see the Atomic Bomb Dome, Peace Memorial Park and Peace Memorial Museum. No need to get deep into the history. I’d hope anyone reading this knows that the first of only two atomic bombs (nuclear weapons) dropped on cities were dropped on Hiroshima. If you didn’t know this I’d implore you to read a history book and wonder how you made it through school.

As you can imagine, the history is pretty fascinating yet tragic. The museum has clothing, pieces of buildings, debris, tons of testimonials and information about the people. Additionally you learn about studies done on the effects of the area and there’s a children’s memorial as well.. It’s pretty heart wrenching stuff and although different not that unlike my visits to concentration camps in Europe. I’d tell anyone interested in WWII or, history in general, that it is worth a visit.

Knowing that wouldn’t take more than a few hours I decided to roam the city as I like to do. Hiroshima Castle was a quick stop which looked similar to Osaka Castle. I had read that it wasn’t really worth going in if you’d been to Osaka so checked out the grounds and moved on. Eventually I made my way to the very hard to find Raku Beer. Whereas technology is very handy when it comes to translation Google maps is not very good with Japan. Anyway I arrived at this little craft beer joint hot, sweaty and needing a cold one so it was perfect. To my surprise, on the arrival of a second beer, Tom Sawyer from Rush started to play; again a sign, this is where I should be. Great music continued the beers were done and it was back to the hotel.

With all that history, walking, sweating and beer there was never any food. I dropped off my stuff and was ready to finally try some okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is a Japanese ‘pancake’ that originates from Hiroshima.  Okonomiyak is filled with various ingredients the simplest description; a very very thin crepe sandwich that is cooked on a flat top grill. Cabbage is pilled inside then topped with whatever meat/fish before being covered. It’s cooked/steamed down then flipped over pulling out the bottom ‘crepe’ putting it on top. After cooking down it’s transferred onto a bed of noodles for a few minutes. The final step on the cooking is an egg. Cracked on the grilled the ‘pancake’ is places on top (noodles still on the bottom), swirled around in the egg putting a thin layer across the entire bottom. The ‘pancake’ is now flipped onto a plate, egg side up and covered with sauce. It looks like this (right) and you can see some other pictures in the gallery. 

My okonomiyaki was filled with shrimp and octopus and it was delicious. However others got vegetarian versions, ham inside and cheese melted on top, I think you can get whatever you like. The name is derived from the word ‘okonomi’ meaning how or what you like. Not sure why places in America aren’t making these as people obviously love them. Dozens and dozens many side by side each more crowded then the next. Who wants to invest in an Okonomiyaki stand or food truck??

Hiroshima is one of Japan’s largest sake producing areas so after my Okonomiyaki there was a bottle of local, unfiltered, sake on the horizon. The sake and I headed back to my room; fyi it was awesome!!

Miyajima was next on the agenda so, up early, train from Hiroshima station to Miyajima followed by a 2 block walk to the ferry. The ferry goes to the island of itsukushima. The majority of people go to see the itsukushima shrine which includes the “floating” torii gate. Pictures show it looks to be floating at high tide while at low tide you can basically walk to it.  You’re probably not aware but have seen many pictures of the gate if you’ve ever looked into Japan. I knew it was under renovation but having visited many famous sites (Notre Dame, Christ The Redeemer, Sistine Chapel, etc) while being renovated; I was surprised to see this totally covered in scaffolding.

It was disappointing but such is life, it’s an excuse to go back to this interesting island where deer roam the streets without a care. Although, as the pictures show, not much could be seen of the gate there was still more to do. After walking through the shrine I was ready to make the climb of Mt Misen.

Basically the climb can be accomplished by taking one of the trails and climbing the whole mountain or there’s a rope-way that takes you within about a mile of the top. In the past I’d be ready for the climb but with the humidity and everything else I took the easy way out, which still wasn’t easy; the rope-way. It’s actually two rope-ways, you go about two thirds in smaller 6 seat then transfer to a gondola that holds about 30 people. Once you’re at the station it’s about a 40 min hike to the top with various shrines along the way. 

This was by no means a rough hike but as I mentioned before it’s pretty humid in Japan right now. I was able to sweat off all those beers and sake justifying my reward once I made it back down to the main strip/port area.

Maybe you knew that Hiroshima as well as Itsukushima are located in the Seto Inland Sea which is the top oyster producing area for Japan dating back over 500 years? Well if not, now you do and I’ll also fill you in on another little tidbit. These oysters (below) are probably some of, if not, the best oysters I’ve ever had; grilled, nothing added (soy sauce and lemon juice out for anyone who wanted it) and simply amazing.

After the oysters I walked the town and discovered the Miyajima brewery and Starbucks. I obviously skipped the coffee for a local beer sampler before catching the ferry back to the train and back to Hiroshima.

Like many countries the department stores have everything and by everything they even have food courts and restaurants. Back in Hiroshima, realizing two oysters wasn’t cutting it, I grabbed a beer, some yakitori, headed back, packed and hit the sheets for..

NAGASAKI

In all honesty  Nagasaki was chosen knowing there wasn’t tons here “to see” but it was the site of the dropping of the second atomic bomb. It has a little history as do I..

Many years ago, in the 4^th grade (Mrs. Clancy’s class) we had to choose a place to do a report about. Japan was my choice and it fascinated me. Between the history, topography, geography, culture and all the things about the country I wanted to go. Coincidentally it was the first place that ever made my travel ‘list”. It was also the first A grade (there weren’t many before college), ever received in school.

Reading about Japanese history and WWII the gist seemed to be if you visit Hiroshima there’s no real need for Nagasaki; I wanted to see for myself. Nagasaki has some other significance besides the Atomic Bomb dropping. There were Portuguese settlements and Christianity was on the rise. Dejima was a man made island to isolate the Portuguese from the Japanese population preventing  the proliferation of the religion. Christians ended up being persecuted and the Portuguese were eventually expelled from Japan.

There were no longer foreign trade ports with one exception; Nagasaki. The Japanese government allowed the Dutch to trade but restricted them to Dejima. Operations continued like that for around two centuries. Well that’s kind of a synopsis of what I remember so don’t quote me on any of it. The point being there was some significance here. There is also no massive subway or trains system running through the city just buses and an old school cable car system (kind of like San Francisco).  Additionally Nagasaki is known to have one of the top night views in the world from the top of Mt Inasayama.

With all that said, on arrival I went straight to Peace Park (first stopping to check into Hotel Cuore Nagasaki). After seeing the Fountain of Peace and the Peace Statue I headed to Hypocenter Park which marks ground zero of the 2^nd atomic bomb. From there I headed over to the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum which was interesting but didn’t really compare to its much larger counterpart in Hiroshima.

After spending some time at the museum it was time to head to Chinatown. Nagasaki Chinatown happens to be the oldest in Japan and I was interested in getting some Champon. Champon is a regional noodle dish inspired by China however Chinatown was extremely quiet. This didn’t seem like any Chinatown I’d been to so I decided to move on. Later in a shopping arcade there was some kind of celebration with kids performing and I came to find out it was National Day. I don’t really know the history of China National Day but thinking it explains why there weren’t many people around.

In the end I had the best ramen and then walked over to the Meganebashi (Spectacles) Bridge before finding love in the rocks (see gallery below) then heading back to the hotel. The plan was to head up to Mt Inasa in the evening for the best night view but given the clouds I opted out. Rather then stand in the clouds seeing nothing I worked on the blog you’re reading 

Being up at 5 o’clock when you don’t need to be is just dumb. However it gave me time to work on the blog and figure out what to do for the day. Although I like that it’s not a big massive city and  that there isn’t a subway stop on every corner the understanding of skipping Nagasaki was a little more clear.

Sure there’s a deep history here. Some of that history exists at Clover Gardens  which was my first stop this morning. As you walk to the entrance the Oura Catholic Church is along the way. I opted not to stop outside of taking a picture and headed to the gardens. On the plus side it was just after 8 so I was one of only a handful of people there. Man could I have really gone for a cup of coffee, nope! More information being in English would have been great too. Seemed to start off in all languages but wasn’t consistent. Honestly I just found it really boring and this was one of the places that kept showing up as must sees.

The highlight of the whole thing, that made me chuckle to myself was Jokichi Kusano (to the right). I’m considering him the first (or at least Japan’s first) ‘Top’ or ‘Master Chef.’ He’s probably the first Japanese “food pornist’ as well.  Here is what it says under on the plaque 

There was a slight drizzle as I left as a group of about 50 arrived.

Walking back toward Dejima it started to rain harder. The idea of going to Gunkanjima (an island you can only go via tour) was already off the table. I headed to the Dejima wharf area thinking I could grab coffee and wait out the rain. Nothing was open so it was back towards the hotel. Around lunch time, now pouring, I managed to get another amazing noodle dish; better then yesterday. It was the first time enjoying Tsukemen which is basically a ramen dish but the noodles and broth come separate. You dip everything into the broth and eat it;  hands down one of the best meals EVER. 

A hot humid overcast day. Adding in the on and off rain and clouds Mt Inasa, out again..

I certainly didn’t hate Nagasaki, appreciate the historical significance of the place  and glad I saw it just a little disappointed in missing out on a couple of things; I’m sure it won’t be the last disappointment on the journey.   

Seems like a good time to sign off, grab a beer and pack for tomorrows early flight back to Tokyo. 

You can check out some more pictures below while you wait for the next installment and follow @escapinglife3hrs on Instagram and Facebook