Emily: Hello! This morning the alarm went off a little earlier – around 6:45. I was really sleepy! We left the hotel at about 7:50 or so. We stopped at a little shop in the train station for breakfast. They had pastries so we got chocolate chip pastries (one each). We also got salmon onigiri so we could have something salty. We walked to the Shinkansen area of the station and since we had some time before our train, we looked around at the little shop near the platform. We didn’t buy anything. Our train was at 8:22. We took the Hikari Shinkansen to Hiroshima Station. The train ride was roughly 2 and a half hours. I ate breakfast and then I slept. I first slept sitting but I woke up and my neck hurt a lot so then I put my messenger bag on the tray table and slept on that. It sure made the trip go by faster! After that we transfered to the JR lines and took a local train on the Sanyo Line to Miyajimaguchi. That train ride was maybe 20 minutes or so. I wasn’t really paying attention. At Miyajimaguchi we walked out of the station, down stairs, and up stairs again to cross the street. There’s no crosswalk so they make you go underground. Strange.

As we were walking toward the ferry landing I realized that our rail passes might work for the JR ferry. I checked the back of the rail pass (read the fine print!) and it said that it applies to the ferry to Miyajima. So, we walked right onto the ferry without having to buy a ticket! Pretty nice. We went up to the third or so floor of the ferry and stood along the rail during the 10 minute ride. The boat went in a way so that first it was heading straight for Itsukushima Shrine so people at the front could take a picture, then it turned so people on the right side (our side) could take a picture. The torii gate in the water is really pretty. When we landed we just showed our rail passes at the gate. We walked along the water toward Itsukushima Shrine. There were some deer scattered here and there but not nearly as many deer as Nara. The deer are really calm (unlike the ones in Nara) because people don’t feed them (like in Nara!).

Before Itsukushima Shrine we took a left turn and walked down Omotesando Shopping Arcade. Debbie and Candace stopped at the Sanrio (Hello Kitty) store and Mom and I walked to the post office to mail a card she wrote to St. Jude Medical Center (work) on the train. We were standing there preparing to ask how much stamps for postcards to the US are and then we walked up and there was a little laminated paper that said in English “postcard stamps for anywhere are 70 yen.” So we’re like “oh, how cool!” and the post office guy just took our postcard and our 70 yen; we assume he stuck the stamp on and mailed it for us. Mom was happy because she didn’t have to do much thinking in Japanese.

So we went to the 1050 yen store (hey, this whole day is like deja vu! I was there two weeks ago!) and bought jinbei for ourselves. Mine is pink with white rabbits on it and Mom’s is light blue with goldfish on it. We’re going to wear them as pajamas, probably. I also bought a 1050 yen watch because it’s inexpensive for a watch. Mom bought folding fans (for herself and gifts). Candace found another pretty yukata and obi and Debbie found a yukata for herself (the one on the mannequin – we turned around and all of a sudden the mannequin was naked!  Funny.) After paying for everything I decided I wanted a wider obi (belt for yukata/kimono) so I bought a light pink one with flowers on it.

Anyway, we wandered down the street and found a good place to eat lunch. There was a small restaurant (called Shinagawa! Haha) that I think does handmade noodles. There were a couple families in there and the little kids were amusing. One of them practically yelled/screamed “SUMIMASENNN” (Excuse me!) at the people working. It was funny. Anyway, I got anago meshi and cola. Anago meshi is saltwater eel on rice. It had some ginger too. Instead of miso soup there was a side bowl with udon noodles in it and kamaboko (fish cake). There was a dish with takuan (pickles) and a type of pickled seaweed that was really good. And guess what!? My food cost 1800 yen. That’s about 17-18 dollars. But, anago meshi is a specialty of Miyajima so Mom let me have it. I thanked her profusely. Candace had tempura udon and Debbie & Mom had curry rice bowl.  Mom also had iced coffee that she loved because she said it tasted like dessert.

We stopped at a little store where I bought a folding fan for myself with bunnies on it and I also got a clear folder that says “Dreams Come True.” Then we went to a store that has momiji, the little pastries that have like pancake-like dough shaped like a maple leaf and filled with random fillings. They were selling individual momiji treats for 80 yen so Mom and I got a peach and a cheese cream/cream cheese one. Debbie & Candace tried the custard and chocolate flavors.

After that we walked to Itsukushima Shrine. I asked for one adult and one high school student ticket in Japanese. Mom was proud of me (haha). We walked through and I was incredibly happy because it was pretty much exactly high tide (1:11 PM) so the shrine appeared to be floating in water. When I went two weeks ago we went at low tide so where there’s usually water there were little bulldozers getting rid of seaweed on the ground. Today we could see seaweed floating but there were also jellyfish in the water. And trash. Oh well. We took various pictures then we walked back through the entrance and wandered along the main steet back to the ferry landing. We all used the restroom and then shopped at the little store in the terminal. Mom bought a t-shirt (as a gift). Then we took the ferry back to Miyajimaguchi. We sat inside in a little booth-type area where there’s two/three seats facing each other and a little table inbetween. Mom and I tried both momiji treats on the ferry. We got off the ferry, went underground and back above ground, and caught the Sanyo Line again to Hiroshima.

This ride was amusing because a bunch of people were sleeping and I was waiting for the teenage guy in front of me to hit his head on the little side bar. I think he did so he stuck his hand in between his head and the bar and he kept sleeping. When the train got to Hiroshima it was cute to see a man trying to wake his little son who kept insisting on sleeping. We decided our priority was to buy the momiji treats to bring home.

So, we first walked through a little shopping mall called Asse because that’s where we ended up when we got off the train. There were some cute clothes stores and I stopped at a shoe store to look for shoes but I found none. Candace bought some cute sandals. We wandered to the train station area and spotted a momiji sign on a building across the street so we tried to walk toward it. We got to the bus terminals but there was no crosswalk! We found an elevator that took us down to level B1 so we took it to an undeground area that’s probably connected to the subway station. We went to the department store (eeru eeru? LL? In Japanese class that’s “language lab”) and looked for food. We couldn’t find the peach flavored one! They only had standard: custard, chocolate, green tea, and red bean. Debbie stopped at a place there and bought some boxes for people. The lady there gave her lots of samples!

Then we went back to the station and walked down a little tunnel-like path that took us to the Shinkansen area. We stopped at a little food place and I walked around swiftly and found okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style. Okonomiyaki is basically cabbage and noodles and batter and meat and egg and sauce and seaweed, etc all layered. Hiroshima is the only place that has noodles and makes it layered, though. Osaka style mixes everything together. We bought two okonomiyaki that had soba noodles (I said “two okonomiyaki” because japanese don’t do plural words for that type of stuff). Then we continued our search. We found another food place near the Shinkansen platforms that had a wider variety of momiji flavors. Though, nobody had peach. Darn. We bought boxes of the pastries for family and ourselves. I also bought two individual lemon ones.

We went to the Shinkansen platform and waited there until it came. We took the Hikari Rail Star from Hiroshima to Shin-Osaka. It was pretty nice. Mom and I sat in 17A and 17B but we were near the front of the car because it was theoretically going backwards. We ate our okonomiyaki and the lemon momiji and then I slept the rest of the way. At Shin-Osaka we transferred to a different shinkansen, the Kodama, to take one stop to Kyoto. It took about 14 minutes. When we got back to the station we returned to the hotel room, dropped off our stuff, then went out wandering. Mom and I walked through the Cube to look for clothes. There was a cute dress but then the lady’s Japanese was confusing and she said something and I gave her the dress then she put it back on the shelf. What the heck!? So we didn’t buy it. We decided to go to Isetan to look for shoes. They were incredibly expensive! Roughly 200 dollars for regular shoes or sandals or stuff. Lame. We walked out frustrated and went to Bic Camera, which is right next to the station. We went up to the 7th floor to look for Jennifer Ikeda’s bakugan toy/game/thing. We looked around and finally asked the girl there if they had it. She didn’t know what it was, so she asked the guy there about it and he started bowing and said that they didn’t have it. Oh well. We went to the capsule machines and got stuff for people there.

Then we returned back to the hotel room. Debbie and Candace came to use the internet for a bit and I watched Music Station. Now, I’m tired so I shall upload pictures and sleep!

Sad to say, our vacation is coming to an end in a couple of days!  Please leave us your comments about this or any of the rest of the blog!  Hope we didn’t bore you with too many details (and the previous lack of paragraphs!)

1800 yen Anago Meshi

Mom and I in front of the large Torii Gate

Okonomiyaki on the train

Lemon Momiji