Japan 2017: 16 September: Hiroshima to Miyajima

Return to 15 September: Hiroshima and surrounds

Today our goal was to take a day trip to Onomichi, a bustling port city on the coast of Japan's inland sea. They have developed a long tourist-friendly walk along a well-populated hillside that takes you up and down the slopes and past a series of a dozen or so temples, with ever-changing views down onto the city and its port.

Before leaving, we decided to hit the bakery near our ryokan that we'd discovered yesterday night on our way to dinner. They had a wide range of pastries, many "savoury" (i.e., with meat or other forms of protein in them), so we figured they'd be a good choice, not to mention something new. We spent a while trying not to drool on the many yummies, and eventually settled on a small selection: a chicken and basil and cheese pizza slice, a beef curry bun, a ham and eggs bun, and for dessert, a red bean paste pastry and a chocolate pastry. All delicious, and devoured swiftly and washed down with good machine coffee.

It was a toss-up whether we'd get to the train station faster if we walked or took the shuttle bus, but since it was cool enough for me to walk without turning into a puddle (which tends to happen when temperatures rise above about 24°C), we decided to walk and enjoy the city close-up. No special discoveries, but a pleasant long walk before sitting on the train for 45 minutes .

Shoshanna was looking for insoles for her boots, since the built-in padding wasn't very good, and we found an L.L. Bean store and a Timberlands store on the same floor of a big department store building. They wouldn't open until after 10, so we continued on to the train, but planned to return on our way home. As usual, Japan Rail provided a swift and comfortable trip, and we were soon on our way up into the hills.

There were some flashbacks to our endless stair-climbing during last year's hiking vacation in Amalfi (Italy), but this time it was much easier: not as many stairs, nor as high an ascent. However, after the first temple, we missed a turning point and found ourselves climbing uphill on a wild temple chase. The map wasn't very good, and the route we took appeared to be clearly headed for a particular temple and observation point that clearly indicated on the map. The position didn't look quite right on the map, but it seemed like the only way to go, and the map wasn't so great. In the end, it the temple and viewpoint at the top of the hill turned out to be only a distant cousin of where we were really supposed to be headed. We probably spent an hour wandering down a series of back alleys and into dead ends that got us no closer to the actual trail. All very interesting, particularly since we got some nice views down the hills and into the sea, and got to watch a local painter producing an oil painting of the scenery from the viewpoint.

Eventually, we gave up and returned to the first temple, where we found the turn we'd missed and bent our course back on track. Saw several nice temples and one really spectacular one along the way. One interesting thing was the large number of cats. Apparently, cats are a "thing" in Onomichi. One of the highlights of the walk was watching three kittens playing pounce and wrestle in the vegetation outside one of the temples.

As the day wore on, we took a closer look at the map and saw that we wouldn't likely be able to complete the full temple tour, so we chose a reasonably midpoint: there was a ropeway (cable car) leading up to the viewing point that we'd incorrectly thought we'd reached earlier in the day. The view was rather nice, particularly when washed down with a nice local beer, eponymously named Onomichi after the city. Like most of the Japanese beers we've tried, it had a nice, light, crisp taste that was perfect for cooling down after a long and sweaty hike in the hills. But it was also unpasteurized and unfiltered, so it had a pleasantly funky yeasty aftertaste. And it's one of the very few microbrews we've seen. Asahi and Sapporo seem to have pretty much locked up the beer market.

After admiring the view, we took the ropeway back down the hill, then continued on foot into the port area. Spent some pleasant time exploring the publicly accessible parts of the central port area, then turned inland and spent some time browsing in another covered outdoor shopping mall. This one was definitely less ritzy than the Hiroshima mall, but every bit as eclectic. Also, mostly closed; it was mid-afternoon, and thus between the lunch rush and the dinner/post-work rush. We stopped in at a tiny outdoor store, maybe 10 feet by 30 feet, to see if they had insoles suitable for Shoshanna and me. (My boots are also not very good for pavement or standing around.) Nope! The lengths the shopkeeper had in stock were good, but not the width. We westerners have different foot sizes from the Japanese.

We continued our stroll, and found a small crafts shop, even tinier than the outdoor store... maybe 8 feet by 8 feet? They had a bunch of cat-themed things, which we thought would be a perfect gift to our vet for keeping our Ben Venue alive long past his predicted expiry date. The shop was open, and had a nice little porcelain aneki neko (waving/welcoming cat) sculpture that would have been perfect, but there was no sign of the shopkeeper. We waited about 5 minutes, hoping they'd return, but they never did. I love a culture where the crime rate is so low you can just wander off and ignore your store for however long.

As I was writing this, Shoshanna just chortled with pleasure: her Fitbit recorded 24 thousand steps today. Seems about right; we'd been walking fairly steadily for going on 5 hours.

We arrived back at the train station in time to stop in at the station bakery for a snack (sausage roll and an iced peach smoothie). Japanese peaches are huge, white-fleshed, and delish, but we've only had them once; prices approach $4 each, and we're reluctant to splurge too often. But the peach drink was something new, so what the heck!

By the time we made it to our train's platform, school was out and the platform was aswarm with kidsT the most charming part was the small groups of 6-year-olds, who were beyond cute—but also completely unselfconscious about being released on their own to take the trains home, completely unescorted and unworried. I love a culture where kids can be raised to be this independent and this safe! Interestingly, the boys clumped together and the girls clumped together, with no mingling.

Finally made it back to Hiroshima around 5:30, in time to hit the department store and look for insoles. Shoshanna found a pair that fit her, but although I found a pair long enough for my feet, there wasn't a pair wide enough for me. It's not like I have unusually large feet—quite the opposite, really. It's just that westerners have bigger feet than Japanese. Forgot to mention earlier that we'd visited several pharmacies in search of insoles, but they apparently are not a Japanese thing.

Shoshanna was craving oysters, a Hiroshima-prefecture specialty, so we stopped in at a restaurant (Coeur del Pesche = heart of the fish) that looked promising. She had her oysters, I had a nice steak braised in red wine sauce, and we wandered home through Hiroshima's considerably swankier open mall. Ice cream shops were missing in action, and I was craving some, so I eventually gave up and tried a 7-11. These stores are everywhere, sometimes within a couple blocks of each other, and usually within spitting distance of "Family Mart", which seems to be their main competitor. Also interestingly, they have a large liquor selection—not just beer, but half an aisle of the hard stuff.

Note to Japan travellers: the 7-11 stores also have an ATM, which is apparently one of the best places to get cash out of your account. This is necessary because Japan seems to be a very cash-centric society. You can definitely use your credit card in many places, but thus far, it seems like less than half the places we've shopped—unlike the near universality of credit card acceptance in North America.

We were supposed to go to Miyajima Island tomorrow to spend a night and a day, but the forecast wasn't looking great: supposedly, heavy rain and strong winds, which would be inconvenient for hiking, but not a deal-breaker. However, the place we'd be staying asked the booking site to contact us earlier this morning and suggest we not come... turns out the weather guys were sugar-coating things: a typhoon will strike the island and most of the surrounding coast this weekend, and it's supposed to be a big one. Since we didn't want to compete with Sean and Tony (my brother and his husband, who just survived Hurricane Irma in Florida) for attention, we cancelled our trip. We're going to Nara a day early instead.

Off to bed early after a long day of walking.

Continue to 17 September: Miyajima to Nara