From Tokyo & Mt Fuji, we continued south to Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima.
Our first stop was Kyoto, known as the cultural center of Japan. It was the capital city for hundreds of years prior to moving to Tokyo in 1868. It has many temples, shrines, and palaces that reflect the historic importance of this city. One of these is Fushimi Inari Shrine, or the shrine of ten thousand gates.
These gates as known as torri, and they create a walkway through the shrine. Torri can be seen everywhere in Japan, but the Fushimi shrine is well known for the sheer number of them.
There are also some very intricate shrine buildings on the site. The statues on either side are foxes, typically representative of messengers to the gods.
Kyoto is beautiful, surrounded by mountains with a lovely river flowing through the city.
We also had our first experience with omekase (oh-meh-kah-say), a Japanese word that means 'I'll leave it up to you' or 'chef's choice'. Omekase is a common way of ordering food in Japan. Typically, you pay a set price for omekase, and the chef prepares a certain number of courses, making them in front of you. We tried both sushi and teppanyaki omekase on consecutive nights in Kyoto, and both meals were incredible.
For our sushi omekase, we sat at a small counter in front of the sushi chef. He made us appetizers, including miso soup, abalone, and scallops, before starting on nigiri sushi. He cut the fish and made the sushi by hand right in front of us and passed the sushi over the counter. In Japan, you typically eat nigiri sushi with your hands, rather than chopsticks. Also, the chef puts wasabi and soy sauce on the sushi before giving it to you so that you have the 'right amount' to complement the fish. We were a bit nervous about the rules, but the chef was very kind and tolerant to us 'gaijin' (foreigners). I didn't want to be too obnoxious and take pictures the whole time, but I did snap a shot of one of my favorite dishes- grilled abalone!
The next night, we did teppanyaki omekase. The word 'teppan' means metal plate, while 'yaki' means fried or grilled. It differs from hibachi in that teppanyaki is done on a flat metal griddle, while hibachi is done over a grill. It was similar to our sushi experience, where we sat at a counter and the chef prepared each course (usually a small piece of meat or vegetable) and then placed it in front of us. By the time we had devoured the course, he was busy cooking us and the other customers their next course. It was amazing how he could keep track of all the different items and how long they had been cooking for. All of our food was perfectly done.
Our wagyu beef course. Literally the best steak I've ever had. And steak + wasabi=amazing.
After our culinary delights in Kyoto, we headed to Osaka, where we ate more food. This time, we took a cooking class and learned how to make udon noodles. Traditionally, the noodles are made from water, flour, and salt, mixing until a ball formed. Then, you step on the dough, folding it several times and repeating, to make it tough and chewy. Then you cut the noodles before adding it to a fish broth soup to make udon. Nowadays, there are noodle making machines that do all this more efficiently but less joyously. We ate our own creations, and they were delicious.
We also headed to Dotonburi street, a very touristy place full of food vendors, where we tried okonomiyake (oh-koh-noh-me-yah-kay), a sort of savory pancake made from cabbage, octopus, flour, and covered in Japanese mayo and topped with some sort of fish flakes. It's actually pretty tasty.
The craziness of Dotonburi:
The next day, we took the bullet train about 30 minutes to Himeji castle, one of the largest and most visited in Japan. It was originally built in the 1300's and added onto as the centuries went by. It underwent a major restoration in the 1950's and is largely preserved to what it looked like when people lived there. For the time, it was an engineering masterpiece with 7 floors in the keep.
After returning to Osaka, we had our first kaiten sushi (or kaitzensushi or conveyer belt sushi or sushi train) experience. Osaka is where the first kaiten sushi restaurant opened in 1958, and it has taken off as a worldwide sensation since then. We hadn't gone to one in the states, so it was fun to do it in the birthplace of kaiten sushi! It's fairly simple- you sit down and the conveyer belt brings small plates with sushi by your table. If you see something you like, you pick it up from the belt and enjoy it, keeping the plate on your table. The plates are different colors, and there is a key on your table that shows the cost of each plate. At the end, a server comes and adds up your bill based on your plates, and you pay. As you can tell, we thoroughly enjoyed it :)
After two nights in Osaka, we headed south to Hiroshima. We actually continued out of the city center about 30 minutes and took a ferry to Miyajima Island. This small island has a famous shrine and torii gate. During high tide, water covers the base of the torii gate, but in low tide, you can walk out to the gate, which is massive.
Another interesting thing about Miyajima is that the deer have become tame after being around so many people (and likely getting fed). They come right up to you and search for food. It's a little sad that they aren't wild animals anymore, but they are pretty dang cute.
We also took a cable car to the top of Missen mountain on the island, which had an incredible view of the city of Hiroshima and surrounding mountains.
We spent the night on the island in a Ryokan, or traditional Japanese inn. The rooms have tatami mat floor and futons on the ground for sleeping. They were actually quite comfortable.
The next day we took the ferry back to Hiroshima and spent the day in the city. We visited the atomic bomb dome, one of the only remaining structures which has been turned into a place of remembrance in Peace Memorial Park. The park has several memorials as well as a museum, which detailed the bombing of Hiroshima and the aftermath. While I've been taught WWII and the atomic bomb, it was from an American point of view. It was quite moving to look at it from a Japanese point of view. History is always shaded by the lenses we view it from, no matter how unbiased one tries to be. While the narrative is different from each source, the fact remains that there was a terrible amount of suffering in Hiroshima at the time. As a physician, it was tough to see the pictures of the burned bodies and the shards of glass from the initial bomb, and later the devastating effects of the radiation. There was a very interesting section in the museum looking at the history of nuclear warfare in the Cold War and the years afterwards. It was a solemn reminder of the power and danger we have in our present nuclear age. I'm glad we spent the afternoon at the memorial and the museum, and I highly recommend it if you travel to Hiroshima.
And on that cheery note, we finished our trip in Japan. It was absolutely incredible. The people were so kind, helpful, and pleasant. The cities were incredibly clean and the public transportation efficient. The landscape was beautiful. I would definitely put it in the top ten countries I have visited- and I would 100% come back! I've heard the skiing in Hokkaido is fantastic- who wants to join us?! Honestly, we may just come back for the food :)
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