We jumped straight on to a tram when we arrived and started looking for Okonomi-mura, a popular place to try the local Hiroshima specialty called "okonomiyaki" which is basically a huge ass pancake filled with vegetables, noodles, eggs and all sorts of other things both over and under a thick batter that is tossed around in all directions on a griddle before ending up on your plate! The chefs were cheeky and playful almost putting on a show for us as they were cooking. We were watching them from the sidebar and it was a really fun experience! The Hondori shopping street was also a haven of fun, almost like an amusement park with its arcade game shops and colourful shops. I found a vintage shop where I got a pair of old Japanese style teacups for the ridiculius price of close to nothing and a bunch of postcards to send home to all you people! Losing track of time in Hondori we ran to the Peace Memorial Museum in time before closing. Outside they were preparing for the peace memorial ceremony to take place on the 6th of August (2 days after our visit; shame we could not be there to see the marking of the 69th anniversary but oh well). Apparently they send paper lanterns in different colours down the river to commemorate the souls of those who died. I found the museum to be very touching. Maybe not as overwhelming as Auschwitz, but it still made an impact and I noticed how little I actually knew about the world's first atomic bomb attack. The museum had first hand accounts of the events, lots of stories of school children and burned/melted items from the area including glass bottles and roof tiles moulded into the strangest shapes from the heat generated. Ripped school uniforms and broken toys, lunch boxes with burned content and watches that had stopped at 08:15 were only a few of the exhibits. Walking around the museum island and on the bridge that was the target of the bomb was so surreal. The epicenter was a few hundred meters away from the target and the impact completely flattened the immediate surroundings of a few kilometers if I remember correctly. The ruins of the industrial promotion hall is still standing in the middle of the city and is one of the few buildings that partially survived the attack (everyone inside died). It has been thoroughly preserved and it is mind wrenching to think that the area around the river was a mere surface of dust and sand less than a lifetime ago. Stepping around here on a gloomy, rainy day in August naturally complemented to the general mood.
We were completely soaked by the time we made it to the train. The comfort of the Shinkansen trains are exceptional though, so we had yet another smooth ride on the rails and made it back to Kyoto that night. The next day we picked up a big mac menu each and walked around the Imperial Palace Park. It covers a huuuuge area and parts of it were more like patches of small forests. It smelled of flowers, especially lily of the valley, and I got an instant attack of mosquito bites before putting the repellent on in the forest-y parts. Birdsong and butterflies were also present. After consuming the McD breakfast (guiltyyy) we walked on to see how big the spaces within the garden were. Large areas of gravel stones lined by benches separated the greenery where the odd woman was practicing tai chi and/or dog-walking. You could also see stripes/paths in the gravel made by people biking. That just goes to show how organised Japanese people are; they go out of their ways to keep things neat and orderly to the point where "one does not simply bike outside the path made by a bicycle before you". At the south end of the park there was a really nice carp pond and a very picturesque Japanese garden (basically the highlight of this sight). To my amusement the pond also contained an army of turtles and I spent a ridiculous amount of time photographing and filming them swim..... So cute! We walked from the park to Gion to see the area during daytime. It was the hottest day yet and hardly any wind to cool us down as we walked. Luckily we found a way down to the riverside, took our shoes off and crossed the river by foot! Feeling slightly refreshed we continued ahead and bought drinks at every other vending machine. We were on a slightly tight schedule that day because we were going to visit the city of Kobe in the afternoon, so we rushed down Gion and towards the end of our walk we actually found two things we were looking for in the first place: the alleged "most beautiful street in Asia" (which was indeed really beautiful, though probably even nicer during the cherry blossom season) and another shop selling all sorts of kitchen utensils including knives! I bought a standard kitchen knife suitable for meat and vegetables and Trond got two, one of which had a really fancy blade with engraved patterns and whatnot. Utterly happy about our purchases we headed towards the train station and caught the train to Kobe.
We had two things planned for Kobe: seeing the world's longest suspension bridge and finding out what the fuss around Kobe steak was all about. Michael was super excited about the former, and I have to say it was in fact a pretty cool sight. It was a foggy day and you could see the bridge disappearing into the clouds. Checking the box we headed back to the station and specifically to the restaurant that was our top choice for tasting Kobe steak.
Having to wait for 45 minutes for three spots to clear up was not an issue once we entered the restaurant as we had no idea about the spectacular meal we were about to have. A Danish couple sat next to us and gave us a few tips about what to choose from the menu. Following their advice we got a few different types of meat cuts and shared everything. Again we sat right next to the griddle with the chef in front of us cooking away like a pro. The meat arrived from the back like a royal guest laying on a wooden plate, looking absolutely delicious even raw. I can't really describe this meal without sounding like I'm exaggerating. Calling it a meal would be an understatement, it was more like an acrobatic show seeing how the meat was cooked in front of us. The chef told us to use certain seasonings for certain meat cuts and vegetables and divided it all equally onto our plates as he finished cooking everything in a specific sequence (i.e. All the components were not served at the same time. We got the sirloin steak first, then some vegetables before the tenderloin and finally the fried rice). All parts of the meat was used in some way- even the fat and remaining pieces of meat were made into a rice stir fry sort of thing at the end. The steak, chopped into bite size pieces literally melted in my mouth. The sides were also delicious, but oh dear the steak was extraordinary. If you're ever in Kobe (let alone in Japan) you'd be a fool not to try this. Priciest meal I have had in a while, but it was worth every Yen that I spent. We were the last people to leave the restaurant and just kept going on and on about the amazingness of what we just ate until the waitress kindly asked us to leave in the most patient, polite, Japanese way.
At the train station next door we came 2 minutes before a Nozomi train was about to leave and even though our rail pass did not cover this train type (the fastest Shinkansen train), the guy behind the counter gave us tickets just out of the blue and said we should "RUN". And so we did! Thanks to that guy we were able to make it back to Kyoto in super express speed and crashed in bed with a food baby each in our bellies *still dreaming of Kobe steak*.
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