Seafood specialties of Miyajima

I love it how many of the regional culinary specialties in Japan involves seafood of some sort! The food of Miyajima is anagomeishi, which is conger eel (similar to unagi, but not the same) with a special sauce on rice. Quite a simple dish, but quite pricey. We went to Fujita-ya that was recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide, and we left the place wondering why this place was recommended and not other (cheaper) places? We were also puzzled over why this place was also recommended in another book guide (was it Frommer's?) (we met a lone American traveller (using this other guide) attempting to get in Fujita-ya, but not knowing any Japanese, she was quite confused over what the lady was telling her. She ended up eating with us on our table, and then exploring Mt. Misen with us after).

The anagomeishi itself was quite yummy, but we felt that it wasn't really quite worth the 2300yen (around AU$23). (We saw other restaurants offering anagomeishi for around 1700yen.) Perhaps Fujita-ya gave more meat? Or perhaps it was trying to milk all the money it can from all the foreign tourists led here by their book guides. We'll never know.

Anagomeishi served with some soup and pickled veges:


Since Miyajima is within Hiroshima-ken, kaki (oyster) is another of Miyajima's specialty. Outside one of the restaurants specialising in kaki, there was a stall set up selling take-away grilled oysters for 200yen a-piece. It was hugely popular too, with a long line for the piping hot oysters. And it was soooo good! Plump, fresh oysters hot of the grill... Mmmm yum!

Big fat grilled oysters:


Maple trees are one of the trademarks of Miyajima, so one of the popular omiyage (souvenirs) to buy are the momiji manju (momiji is Japanese for maple, and manju for sweets). These are small cakes shaped like maple leaves with various fillings inside, including the standard anko (sweet jam/paste made out of adzuki beans), matcha (green tea flavour) and the ever-popular custard and chocolate fillings. It was quite yummy and I bought a couple of boxes to give my collegues. For those that don't know, in Japan, it's almost an expection that whenever you travel, you should bring back omiyage to share - I wrote about it in another post.

Momiji manju in the making:

The sacred island of Miyajima

Part 3 of my chronicles of our New Year trip lands us in the island of Miyajima, home of Itsukushima-jinja (ie Itsukushima Shrine), a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Haven't heard of it? Well, chances are, you have probably seen its famous 'floating' torii (Shinto shrine gate), which is one of the most photographed tourist attractions in Japan and rated as one of Japan's three best views. To get there, we had to ride the train from Hiroshima city for about 30mins and then take a short ferry ride to the island.

The torii from the ferry:


The island seems to be mainly a tourist spot with not much residential facilities, much like Rottnest Island back home in Perth. Deer roam freely around, much like Nara. The whole island is considered sacred, and the deer are seen as divine messengers. In one area, we saw two young bucks attempting to fight without any antlers, but in another area we saw a loving picture of a doe and her fawn. (From what I understand, the antlers of deer roaming in public access areas are sawn off for people's safety; they let the deer on the restricted slopes of the mountains keep their antlers)

Contrasting pictures of the nature of deer:


On this island, there is Mt. Misen, which is the holy mountain on this island. At 535m, we could either take a long hike to the peak, or take the cable car ('ropeway') up most of the way. We chose to do the ropeway up and hike back down. The ride took us to about 3/4 to the peak, and it was another 20-30minutes hike to the top. That was a lot of work especially since my legs were still quite sore from our snowboarding trip. On the way up, there was a rest point where we could view the giant iron pot said to have been used by a Buddhist saint in the 7th century and the water inside was kept simmering ever since. Surely the water inside needs to be replaced?

The said pot:


The view at the peak was gorgeous. Made our effort worth its while.

Us at the peak:


The view at the peak (lazy attmept at 'stitching' two photos together):


And the hike back down? It must have taken us well over 1 hour, although it seemed a lot longer. Needless to say, we were so glad to have finally reached the bottom. We weren't really all that interested to see the shrine (surely it can't be much different than the half-dozen other temples/shrines we've already been to?) so off we went to catch our ferry back to Hiroshima city. On our way to the jetty, we saw that the tide had receded and that the 'floating' torii was not 'floating':

High tide in mid-afternoon; lower tide in the early evening:


==

Just thought I'd share something interesting here. We meet many people on our travels, one of whom we'd first met on our Kobe trip - who would have thought that we'd bump into him again in Hiroshima! (He's a guy from Thailand working in Tokyo.) I mean, Japan is not really tiny Perth where you can say "It's a small town!"

Hiroshima eats

Much to the delight of the foodie in me, one of the food specialty in Hiroshima is oysters. And winter is the best time to eat oysters. As the Japanese would say - "Rucky!" (aka 'lucky'). In fact, Hiroshima is the largest and most famous oyster cultivating prefecture in Japan, with Hiroshima's oyster production accounting for over 70% of the national oyster production. For me, the best way to enjoy oysters is au naturel. You'd think that eating oysters sashimi style would be normal in Japan, but strangely I did not once encounter a place that served raw oysters. I read somewhere that raw oysters can only be legally served if the water that the oysters were cultivated in are very clean. Fair enough - after all, I don't want to contract the norovirus, the common source of which are eating raw shellfish with double shells (shellfish absorb ocean water to feed, and human sewage is dumped into the ocean).


Suishin honten

According to the Lonely Planet Guide, Suishin is a good place to try kamameishi, which is rice mixed with kaki (oysters), ebi (prawns) or anago (eel). Of course we went for the kaki kamameishi. There are two places with the same name (Suishin) in the same area but one has a sushi bar and this one was just a casual restaurant. Service was good, and the food was great! English-speaking ability is somewhat limited, but we didn't have any trouble with ordering and paying.

You could just have the kamameishi rice for around 800 yen (you get a tiny plate of veges), or you can get the setto (set) for around 3000 yen. The set includes seven or eight other dishes, including kaki furai (fried oysters), sashimi, chawan mushi (steamed egg dish), fish, chicken and vegetables. It was so yummy! The dishes for the set came out in groups (some individually) and the waitress pointed to the menu to let us know which dish she'd just served. Unfortunately for us, we couldn't read a lot of the Japanese kanji characters on the menu but we were happy with guesswork. The food was very flavoursome, and I really liked the rice.

Dishes included in the set (anyone care to help with translation of the kanji/Chinese characters?):


The dishes:





Suishin (the other one with sushi bar)

We came back to the first Suishin because we saw a couple of things we wanted to try. Well, actually I think Rob only wanted to have o-toro (fattiest part of the tuna belly) sushi again. Myself, I wanted to try the kakinodote nabemono (oyster hotpot). We'd done a huge hike down Mt. Misen in Miyajima and a nourishing hotpot meal was what I needed. There are two sizes available, the lunch-size (probably enough only for one) was 1000yen (~AU$11) and the large size for around 2000yen. We went for the large one to share.

The kakinodote on stove in the middle of the table; and my bowl:


This diner had a sushi bar similar to the one we went to on our first trip to Osaka, where you can watch the chef make the sushi. I don't recall there being an English menu for the sushi, but we had fun reading the hiragana and katakana and going from there. Rob ordered what he thought was crab (because the name had the hiragana for kani, Japanese for crab, plus a few other kanji characters which we did not know) but it was grey colour and tasted more like the innards of crab - it wasn't unpleasant though. In general, the sushi were quite pricey - one piece of o-toro sushi was a whopping 525yen (~AU$6)!! But, they were fresh and well-prepared.

A selection of sushi (clockwise from top left) - kani (the innards?), uni (sea urchin roe), sake (salmon), unagi (broiled eel), and o-toro (tuna belly):



Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki

Hiroshima-yaki, as it is known, is quite different to the usual okonomiyaki we are used to (i.e. Kansai-style). Now, I would consider us to be somewhat knowledgeable on what good okonomiyaki should taste like, having eaten the dish in several cities including Kanazawa, Suzu, and the city where okonomiyaki was said to have originated from: Osaka itself. The biggest difference between the Kansai-style and Hiroshima-style would be the addition of soba and udon noodles. And the ingredients are layered rather than mixed all together. Plus, it's not a do-it-yourself affair, since it's not just a simple matter of mixing all the ingredients and chucking on the hotplate.

In Hiroshima, there is an area called Okonomimura, which literally means Okonomiyaki village. Lots of stalls and diners serving okonomiyaki, and we did not know where to start looking. Being in a bit of a hurry (did not want to miss our shinkansen to Osaka), we took the stairs of the first building we came to. That didn't help much to narrow the choice, because once inside, there were lots to choose from, so we just plonked ourselves down at the inner-most stall. And it was a good choice.

Sign above road indicating that you've entered okonomiyaki land; and being overwhelmed by the choices:


We both went for seafood, one with soba and the other with udon. This included pork, egg and a lot of cabbage, each for around 1300yen (~AU$14.50). I took lots of photos, so one can compare how Hiroshima-style differs from the Kansai-style. The only part that contained the flour batter was the base (plenty of carbs provided by the noodles). It was very filling, even for Rob.

At the beginning of the cooking process (note - the cook was not the epitome of 'Service with a smile'); putting ingredients on top:


With most of the ingredients piled on; flipped over, cooking noodles:


Placing the piles on top of its respective noodle pile; the eggs were first cooked on the hotplate and then placed on top, then generous amount of seasoning was brushed on:


Finished product:

Hiroshima, the city of peace

On Thursday, the Shinkansen whizzed us to Hiroshima. It got us to our destination in half the time it would have taken a Thunderbird Express for the same distance. Yep, it was pretty fast. Once in Hiroshima, we grabbed a late lunch and then headed to Heiwa-koen (Peace Memorial Park). Hiroshima is pretty well another big city, with shopping arcades filled with the young, hip and fashionable (school vacation period).

Inside the main shopping arcade:



Message of peace

We all know what happened to Hiroshima during the World War II, but you don't actually begin to understand the horror and sadness of the tragedy until you set foot in the Park. However, it was more than just horror and sadness - we left with a feeling of admiration for the people of the city, for their tenacity and perseverence towards recovery from the incident, and for changing the tragic experience into a positive one to advocate peace and voice an anti-war message to the world.

Pictures speak a thousand words, and I shall let them speak (with a little anecdote about the meaning behind each memorial article). These are photos of just some of the many memorial articles around in Hiroshima - I didn't want to bore readers with too many, and I hope you will take the time to read and look at the photos I have put up.


A-bomb dome - This building was only a few meters away from the hypocenter (aka ground zero, where the bomb exploded). This building was the subject of controversy as many wanted it to remain to serve as a reminder to the world of the tragedy, but others felt that the building was an unwanted reminder of the tragedy. It is now a Unesco World Heritage site.

The A-bomb dome; and the view from Aioi Bridge, which was the apparent target of the atomic bombing:



Children's Peace Monument - in memory of the children who died as a result of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima. This is a 9m monument with a bell and golden crane inside, and a bronze statue of a girl lifting a crane on top of the monument. This monument was inspired by Sadako Sasaki, a girl exposed to radiation at 2 years old. When she developed leukemia 10 years later, she decided to start folding 1000 paper cranes (it's an ancient Japanese belief that your wish will come true if you fold 1000 cranes). She passed away before reaching her goal, but her classmates folded the rest. This story is well-known around the world now, and this site displays paper cranes contributed by students all around the world.

Rob checking out the monument; golden crane and the bell inside the monument; me sitting with the paper cranes:



Cenotaph and the Flame of Peace - The cenotaph contains the names of all known victims of the bomb. The Flame of Peace will only be extinguished when the last nuclear weapon on the earth has been destroyed. The cenotaph frames the Flame and the A-bomb Dome when you look through it.

The cenotaph, the Flame and the Dome:



National Peace Memorial Hall - this is a contemplative hall of rememberence and a register where the names and photographs of the bomb victims are kept. There are several memoirs and testimonies you can read here to get a perspective of the event through the eyes of victims and survivors - it really is quite sad.

Monument outside the Memorial Hall depicting the hands of the clock at 8:15; inside, the Hall of Remembrance - the wall is a panorama recreating the view of the bombed city, and is made of 140,000 tiles which is the number of people estimated to have died by the end of 1945 (there is another '8:15' monument at the centre of this hall):



The Museum - here you find out more about the history of events before and after the atomic bomb event. Both sides of the story is shown here, and you can also get first-hand accounts of the aftereffects of the bomb.

Replica of the A-bomb Dome inside the Museum:



And a couple of other peace memorial pieces

A row of lighted pillars with the word 'Peace' written in many languages on them:


Peace clock tower - chimes at 8:15am every morning in "prayer for perpetual peace":