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Part 2: Kyoto, Shimanami Kaido, and a quick stop in Nagoya on the way back to Tokyo!
April 11th - Kyoto Imperial Palace
While it wasn't our original destination, we ended up visiting the Imperial Palace in Kyoto the morning of the 11th. You couldn't go inside the buildings, but you were able to walk on a self-guided tour through the grounds for free. (There were guided tours in English, but unfortunately the timing didn't work out for us). There are many entrances to the building, and much like the palace in Nagoya, the rooms are more opulent the further you get from the entrance, because that meant you were getting closer to the emperor's personal chambers.
The garden was also very lovely! It was small and part of an inner courtyard, but it still featured a pond, bridges, and immaculately trimmed trees. Interestingly, the ground cover was mostly moss, rather than grass. I wonder just how many years that moss has been growing there, carefully tended by the gardeners.
Our very tasty meal! A bowl of plain white rice, some vegetable and egg sides along the top, some wagyu beef in the middle with a variety of pickled vegetables, miso soup, and water.
Haru Cooking School
For the afternoon we attended the Haru Cooking School run by a lovely man named Taro and his wife. It wasn't a cooking school in the sense that we learned to cook, but rather Taro cooked a variety of typical Japanese dishes, while taking the time to explain the ingredients, how they were similar or different from one another, as well as how they contributed to the final flavour of a the dish.
We were not the only folks in the class as we were joined by a couple from Italy as well as another couple from Australia. There was lots of talk about what was typical in each person's family or culture, and what an average meal at a restaurant or at home would look like for each of us which was nice. The Australians have a similar issue to Canadians in that when people ask "what is a traditional Australian dish?" we don't have a good answer. But Taro pointed out that a lot of our candy, desserts, or chip flavours can be quite regional.
We had a lovely time learning about the various ingredients and the food was delicious of course. If you find yourself in Kyoto, I absolutely recommend spending an afternoon with Taro, although be sure to have a large brunch or a light lunch first, you don't eat until most of the way through the class.
April 12th - Fushimi Inari Shrine
For our last morning in Kyoto we visited the Fushimi Inari Shrine. It has thousands of red Tori Gates very close together leading the way up the mountain. The paths connect small graveyards, secondary shrines, and the occasional shop while weaving through bamboo and pine forests up a mountain. While the main shrine at the foot of the mountain is absolutely packed with people, the further up you hike the thinner and thinner the crowds become until at the top it really isn't busy. There are still people everywhere, but you can walk at your own pace with little trouble.
After the shrine we took a couple trains to Onomichi, where we met up with Jesse!
captions: (top left) one of the many individual prayer spaces along the paths, (bottom left) a copse of bamboo, (top right) walking along through the tori gates, (bottom right) the stylized map of the shrine/mountain
Onomichi - the Best Small City in Japan (Written by my mum! ❤️)
We arrived in Onomichi with not much time to meet our landlord at the apartment we rented for the night, so we decided to take a cab the short distance from the train station. In a most un-Japanese experience, despite Jesse showing him the location of our apartment on his phone and speaking in Japanese, he showed no sign of recognition (did he live here?). No matter, eventually they got it figured out and it was a short drive to the apartment.
We headed out for a late dinner and after walking around we found a small chicken place. As we were standing outside examining the menu, a local leaving with his take-out spotted us and began effusively signaling we had to eat there. He even poked his head back inside speaking to the owner to see if there was room for us. The restaurant could seat 8 people around a horseshoe bar. With a couple already seated, the owner moved the lone gentleman over a couple of spaces to make room for us. The owner was very friendly and with the help of a pocket translator began speaking with us. I decided a cocktail made using local Onomichi fruit vinegar sounded interesting. (It was very good, so we ordered more). As it turned out, the owner of the vinegar distilling company, now seated beside Marlena after the owner moved him, was in the bar having dinner. (If you follow the link, the owner is the man on the left in the second photo). It was such a great evening. The owner offered us a pin to post on his map of the world showing where visitors have come from and posed for a picture with us before we left.
Onomichi is a beautiful seaside town. The Shiminami Kaido attracts tourists, so it has lots of facilities, but it still has the feeling of a place where regular people live and work. Japan still has lots of specialized small businesses. Portrait photography is very popular in the city- in our brief travels we passed at least 4 little studios. They say there are many more temples in Onomichi than a town of its small size would be expected to have. Next time, we would stay longer and do the 2.5 km Temple Walk that connects 25 of them.
April 13th - Shimanami Kaido
The plan for April 13th was to cycle a route called the Shimanami Kaido. It is a 70km long cycling route that connects Onomichi city on Honshu island with Imabari City on Shikoku Island by crossing many bridges that link the largest islands nearby. There is a lot of flexibility with many bike-friendly ferries servicing the islands, so you can take a ferry part of the way, or cycle part and return to your destination via ferry. However, we decided to cycle the entire route in one go!
Leading up to the day, mum and I were scared to check the weather, but we were blessed with a truly gorgeous day, sunny with a light breeze! 🌞
The first order of the day was to check out of our hotel in Onomichi and then drop our bags off at a different hotel nearby so our suitcases would be shipped to our hotel in Imabari at the other end for us. However, despite the official site saying drop-off was from 8-10 AM, the driver had already been by when we arrived. Thankfully the hotel concierge was able to arrange a second pick-up and our bags did indeed arrive safe and sound at our hotel in Imabari but that was a bit of a heart attack first thing.
Next we went to pick up our bikes at the Giant Store. They performed some minor adjustments, and we might have been able to ask for more, but dad had brought a tool kit so we headed out to catch the first ferry (they advise everyone to skip the bridge between Onomichi and Mukashima because it isn't particularly accommodating). After a short ride and a quick adjustment pit-stop we set off!
The route is very well indicated. There is a continuous blue line painted on the road that includes painted markers every km, as well as markers for upcoming turns. It makes it very easy to follow and double check you are headed the right way since one side of the road says "to Imabari" and the indicators on the other side say "to Onomichi". There is also an impressive amount of cycling/pedestrian infrastructure that has been added. The bridges all have incredibly high decks, but rather than taking a short and steep run up from sea level to the deck height there are winding but gentle approaches to each bridge. I highlighted part of one approach that Jesse captured in a drone shot to the right. That entire highlighted area is exclusively for pedestrians and cyclists (and occasionally motorcycles or scooters, but they usually take a steeper route).
It was a long day, but with stops for snacks and ice cream, as well as just to rest and take photos, we made it to Imabari with some time to spare! Our bums were incredibly sore, but it was well worth it and I am so glad that we had good weather and that Jesse was able to join us too! (Also deciding which of all our lovely photos to add here has been so difficult, there are so many good pictures.)
April 14th - Back to Tokyo via Nagoya
It's a good thing we called it a night relatively early because it was a long-ish day back to Tokyo. While planning the trip we didn't schedule a night in Nagoya, but I realized that considering my family's interest in trains, the SC Maglev and Railway Park (aka the museum with all the shinkansen trains) might be a place of particular interest for us. Since we were going to be passing through Nagoya on our way into Tokyo anyways, I did the math and figured we could spend a few hours at the museum if we didn't mind the extra hassle.
We each learned a few things of interest, even if we were only able to stay for a short while. I learned more about the seat assignment system. Before computers it was all done manually using folders of papers in a spinning carousel so it could take half an hour to get your seat assignment. It was taking so long that trains were leaving the station with unsold seats simply because they couldn't sell the tickets fast enough. That sparked the introduction of "non-reserved seats" which are still an option today. For about 10$ cheaper, you can buy a ticket for a particular day that lets you get on any train and sit in any seat in the first 3 cars.
captions: (top) an early MARS seat assignment computer, (below) the newest MAGLEV design, (left) Mum and Dad next to a current 700 series car
April 15th - Visiting Mt. Fuji
April 15th was another long day as we went to see Mt. Fuji and the Kubota Itachiku Art Museum. Now that I have a Japanese drivers license, we first took a train about an hour out of Tokyo to Hachioji, and and then we picked up a rental car which I drove the remaining hour out to the Fuji 5 lakes. When we visited with our friends in October we went to Yamanakako, but Mum wanted to visit a kimono art museum (next section) so we went to Kawaguchiko instead.
It was fairly busy considering their cherry blossom festival had finished the day before and the trees were still mostly in bloom, so we didn't hang around too much. But we did get some good photos of Mt Fuji as we walked along the lake!
Kubota Itchiku Art Museum
Visiting the museum was a good experience and Kubota Itchiku was an interesting man. Initially trained as a painter, when visiting the National Museum in Tokyo he was inspired by an old scrap of cloth to try and recreate a historic method of dying and decorating clothes that has been lost to time called Tsujigahana. Unfortunately the Second World War began and he was captured. However, after a few years in a POW camp in Siberia he was able to return to Japan in 1948 where he resumed his quest. Over thirty years later he finally developed a method he was happy with, and eventually began an absolutely epic series of works titled "The Symphony of Light" which will feature 80 kimono covering all 4 seasons and the universe. Near the end of his life, he built the museum so the public could appreciate his kimono as he chose, without glass and able to get up close and personal with his art. While he passed away in 2003, his assistants are continuing to work towards completing the series.
I absolutely loved the texture that the tie-dying process leaves in the kimono fabric, and which is sometimes highlighted with additional embroidery. At the beginning, the vertical kimono panels are temporarily assembled to draw on the design, and then they are separated to be tied and dyed separately. The sections are tied very tightly in different patterns while they are dyed which creates patterns in the colours and a variety of textures when the fabric is untied. It might be possible to iron it out, and they do iron the final fabric, but it is done carefully to preserve the crinkles that have been created when adding the colour. The pictures above are from the Kubota Collection website. To the left is mum's photo of the entrance to the garden leading to the museum.
Akasaka
On our way back into Tokyo we took a detour through Akasaka, which is the neighbourhood that Jesse and I lived in when we first moved out of the sharehouse. I really enjoyed getting to revisit restaurants that I knew, and generally walk around a place where I knew the short cuts and where everything was. We also made sure to visit Oyoge to get the best tayaki for dessert. :)
April 16 - Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building
As the last partial day before mum and dad had to leave, we spent the morning sleeping in (it had been a busy 3 days) and then visiting the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building since they have an observation deck on the 45th floor. Unfortunately, we happened to be there on one of the two days each month that they close the observation decks for maintenance. However! The cafeteria is open to the public and located on the 35th floor, so with some helpful directions from the attendants at the visitor's desk, we signed in and took the elevator up to grab lunch. Thankfully we arrived around 11:30 because when we were leaving at noon it was getting very busy! Lots of folks were coming to grab very good food at a very reasonable price. It wasn't necessarily the prettiest food, but it was both healthy and tasty!
April 16-26 - Ten day turn around
And then my parents flew back to Canada, and I took the train to Hiroshima, with about a week and a half until my sister and cousin came to visit! In that time I did plenty of laundry, visited some of our favourite restaurants in Hiroshima, and caught up on sleep in a comfy bed. (One of our best purchases has been a mattress topper, Japanese beds are not particularly comfortable).
We also had to move because our lease was up soon, so I packed up our current apartment in Hiroshima so we could move to... Hiroshima! See, our next city is going to be on the northern island of Hokkaido, about 2000 km away. But between Georgia and Ali coming to visit, Jesse joining us for a week in Australia, and going south to Kyushu for the Victoria Day long weekend, it didn't make sense to move all the way up north until the end of May. At first we tried to extend the lease on our current apartment, but it was already spoken for so we found another apartment in Hiroshima about a 30 minute walk away just for a month.
This second apartment was much older, the shower head was so low that even I had to duck to wash my hair, and the layout of the furniture was a little tricky in the space, BUT it faced south-east with windows on two sides and the balcony overlooked a large traditional Japanese garden so there was lots to love. It helped that the weather was absolutely gorgeous, sunny and warm but not yet hot and humid, so I had the windows and curtains open all day long. Clothes dry so much faster these days, I can almost do two loads of laundry in one day!
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