Tsukishima - the second visit.

Those of you who have been reading for a while know that back in July I visited an area of Tokyo called Tsukishima.  That day, unfortunately, I didn't stay very long as the temperature was over 36 degrees Celsius and 80% humidity.  I did tell myself that I would have to go back and complete my visit, so I did.

A friend of mine, Mariko had offered to show me around if I went back to visit, so I arranged to meet up with her and jumped on the train and set off for Tsukishima again.  I met Mariko outside the train gates and we set off in search of the rest of Tsukishima.   Mariko is a true local who has lived in Tsukishima all of her life so I knew I was going to be shown around by one of the best!

Straight away she led me off in totally the opposite direction that I had gone in before so I knew I was in for a treat.  As mentioned in the previous blog post about Tsukishima, it is a man-made island that was completed in 1892.  There seems to be rivers everywhere in Tsukishima and I was hoping that the little island didn't float off with me still on it!

The autumn colours were still out in Tokyo, and although not as vibrant as those in Nikko recently, the combination of colour and clear blue sky was really nice.

One of the famous local foods here is called Tsukuda-ni.  It comes from the Edo period (1603 - 1867) and is various seafood, meat, seaweed (in fact,almost any food can be cooked this way!) cooked in soy sauce and mirin.  The cooking process preserves the food and it can be stored for long periods of time.  Tsukuda-ni is traditionally eaten as a topping on rice.  We walked past one of the oldest Tsukuda-ni shops in Tsukushima.  It was a lovely old traditional style building that fit right in with the vibe of the area.

There were a lot of other buildings in this style dotted around Tsukishima.

We also walked past an old public bath house still in operation.  It reminded me of the movie "Spirited Away" (Sento Chihiro no Kamikakushi).

In keeping with the atmosphere, a very old water pump outside someone's house.

Next we found ourselves at the gate of the local shrine, Sumiyoshi shrine.

I love these trees.  The form and shape and the perfectly manicured look is phenomenal!

Mariko explained that parents bring their kids aged  7, 5 and 3 (Shichi-go-san) to this shrine to pray.  We were lucky enough to see one family with their child dressed in her kimono at the shrine to pray.

Heading out the other side of the shrine we found a nice little park.  There was some lovely autumn colour to the trees and a nice pond in the middle that was being fed by a waterfall.

Going back across the bridge

we walked back in the direction of Monja street.  We stumbled across another little shrine.

Finally we got back to Monja Street.  Monja street is a street that is lined with Monjayaki restaurants (approximately 60 in total).  What is Monjayaki?  It is Tokyo's answer to Okonomiyaki.  It was said to have been invented here and thus, Tsukishima is considered the home of Monjayaki.  Monjayaki is a lot more fluid than okonomiyaki and while it doesn't look appealing (it looks a lot like prison gruel) it is actually very tasty!!  We didn't have Monja today.  I will save that for another post.

As we hit Monja street there appeared to be some kind of market happening with stalls lining the street

Crossing over the other side of the street we reached the area where all of the monja restaurants are.  With so many restaurants it was difficult to choose one, so we randomly selected one (thanks to Mariko I didn't need to look for one that was advertising an English menu!) and walked in.

We started ordering and soon, the first couple of dishes and the first beer arrived.  The first two dishes were potatoes and butter (jaga bata) and pieces of asparagus wrapped in bacon on toothpicks.

Naturally, with Mariko being a local, I handed over control of the hotplate (teppan) to her.

With kitchen utensils in hand she began!

As anyone who has experienced sliced potatoes cooked on an Aussie BBQ can attest to (or anyone, for that fact, who has experienced potatoes cooked in butter!), these are delicious!!  Quickly finishing these off, the okonomiyaki arrived!  Mariko mixed all of the ingredients together well

and spread it all out on the hotplate.

Pretty soon it was half done

and soon after, the final product!

And, let me tell you, it was good!  But Mariko wasn't finished, oh no!  Next desert was ordered.  Desert turned out to be a crepe cooked and then apricots were rolled up inside before being finished so the apricots were deliciously soft, sweet and bitter.  What an end to lunch!

Looking out the window at this stage, I saw one of those uniquely Japan images.

A tiny balcony outside a window that was being used as a small garden.  I love finding these little gems!

After desert we kept talking and having a couple of more beers.  I noticed that the restaurant had pitchers of beer on the menu and so I called over the restaurant staff and ordered one.  She looked at me with a quizzical look on her face and said something in Japanese and walked away.  I asked Mariko what she had said and she told me that she had said that no-one had ever ordered a pitcher before and she didn't even know if they had them anymore!  A few minutes later she came back with a full pitcher of beer for us to work our way through.

Satisfied after a nice lunch / dinner we left the restaurant and I stopped to take a shot of Monja street at night.

The good thing about having someone with me is that they sometimes take photos of their own while we walk around.  Mariko took a few photos during the day and here are some of them.  Jason at work (or at play!).  

Looking down one of the tiny alleyways that I love!

Deciding on the restaurant.

Chef Jason hard at work....

adding the finishing touches.

And cleaning up afterwards.

Finally, time to relax.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the second, and more comprehensive post about Tsukishima.  Thank you to Mariko for showing me around!

See you again soon.

Finally, Hiroshima (part 2)

This is part 2 of a blog post about my recent trip to Hiroshima.  You can read part 1 here. 

Some of you will know about my love of Hiroshima style okonomiyaki and my "pursuit of perfection", trying to find a great okonomiyaki restaurant in Tokyo.  Well I was now in the home of okonomiyaki and I was determined to have some great okonomiyaki.

We woke up in the morning and guess what.......it was raining!  After dropping my bags off at the next place I was staying at, all of us went in search of okonomiyaki.  

On our way, we walked along a covered shopping street.

Halfway along Toby and I saw a sign that was a real blast from the past!

Nova was the company that Toby and I both used to work for.  The company eventually went bankrupt, and I know a lot of people (Toby included) were affected by that.  It was bought out by another company, but now operates on a much smaller scale than before.


 We went to an okonomiyaki place called Michan.  I would have liked to show some photos of the okonomiyaki being cooked but for some reason they don't allow photos to be taken, so this shot outside the restaurant after we stuffed ourselves will have to do.  It was good, but for me, not the best but I know the others loved it!

By this time, it was 1 o'clock so we went back to our Ryokan from last night so everyone else could get their bags and the set off to Miyajima island.

Miyajima island is off the coast of Hiroshima and accessible via a 15 minute ferry ride.  

As terrible as the weather was, it did make for some spectacular photos of the island from the ferry.  Very hauntingly beautiful!

It seriously felt like I was in a Jurassic Park movie!

We got off the ferry on the other side and made our way to the hotel where Toby, Tim, Steve and Eriko were going to stay at for the night (I had decided to head back to Hiroshima for the night and stay there.......for more okonomiyaki!)  It was about a 5 or 10 minute walk after we arrived.

The room at this place was very nice, and Japanese style as well.  The hotel staff who showed us to their room also made some tea for us and left us to relax.

After a quick powernap,

it was time to head out again and explore Miyajima island.

I said before that I felt like I was heading to Jurassic Park with the way the clouds were hanging low over the mountains, but there were no dinosaurs on Miyajima island, just these guys.

There were a lot of deer, just wandering the streets.  Some of them would come right up close behind you and sniff your pockets looking for food.

A lot of the buildings on Miyajima are beautiful traditional style, just how I like them, and the shopping streets with all sorts of shops was great!  This was the street that ran along the sea, near the ferry port.

 

And the main shopping street just behind it.

Wooden spoons are a popular souvenir from the island.  Wooden spoons are traditionally used to serve rice here as they don't affect the flavour of the rice.

Okonomiyaki restaurants, of course......no, I didn't go in!

Another souvenir shop

and another.

And another shot of the local wildlife relaxing on the steps of a bank.

Deer are considered sacred in the Japanese Shinto religion as they are seen as messengers of the Gods.

Wandering along the street we saw, off to the side, a set of very steep steps heading up somewhere, so, of course, we went up!

At the top was a nice little shrine, and a fantastic view over the town.

Coming back down the steps were pretty dangerous with all of the rain and deer cr#p on them, and sure enough, one of us took a fall.  Luckily it wasn't serious, but we got down to the bottom of the steps and this guy was there staring at us.  It had an evil look on it's face like it was thinking "Yes, got him!".

At the end of the shopping street was the entrance to Itsukushima shrine which is World Heritage Listed.

Itsukushima shrine is also famous for it's Grand Gate that is set out in the ocean, and at high tide it is a fantastic view.  At low tide you can actually walk out to the gate.  Luckily, the tide was in when we were there.

Pretty soon it was time for me to be heading back to Hiroshima so I said goodbye to the others and headed back to the ferry port and back to Hiroshima.

The place that I stayed at for the second night was a Guesthouse called Guesthouse Carpe.  Carpe is owned and run by a friend of Toby's called Kayo.  Guesthouse Carpe has quite high ratings on tripadvisor, and for good reason.  Kayo is very welcoming, friendly and goes out of her way to make you feel comfortable.  In fact, the whole time I was there, It just felt like I was family or a friend, rather than a guest, and this is one of the reasons it gets sch high ratings.  If you are going to be heading to Hiroshima, then you should check out Guesthouse Carpe.

Later that night I went back into the city to go to a place called Okonomimura.  

 It is a building with more than 20 okonomiyaki restaurants in it!  Wow, talk about paradise!!  Imagine trying to make a choice about which one to eat at.  That is exactly what I was contemplating when I hear "Hello, welcome we have an English menu".  That was all I needed.  I turned around and saw a lady (Yukina) with a big smile on her face and I went on in to her restaurant.  The name of the restaurant was simply "Ron".

I ordered the okonomiyaki with spring onion topping and sat down to watch a professional in action!  A thin crepe with a big pile of cabbage and bean sprouts

topped with pork.

 It then gets flipped over and the cabbage and bean sprouts start to reduce in size.

 Next on to the hotplate are the noodles. 

An egg is cracked onto the hotplate and everything is put on top of the egg.  It is then flipped over again and covered with a sweet sauce and spring onions.  I didn't get photos of all of that because I was too excited!  Here is the finished product.  It didn't last very long, and it was good!

I stayed on after I finished the okonomiyaki as there was a soccer game on tv.  Yukina and I had a chat, half in English and half in Japanese, (where I could).  Again, if you are heading to Hiroshima, head over to Okonomimura and find "Ron" and say Hi to Yukina and enjoy some of her okonomiyaki.

I left Ron and headed back to catch the streetcar back to Guesthouse Carpe.  On the way I passed the nuclear dome again and it was lit up.  I had to stop and take some pictures.

It was a beautiful sight, standing there proud and defiant, a symbol to the rest of the world of the resilience of the people of Hiroshima.

My time in Hiroshima was, unfortunately, coming to an end.  I woke up the next morning and said goodbye to Kayo and went back to Hiroshima train station to meet up with the others.  I got there early and figured I had time to fit in one more meal of okonomiyaki, so I found "Fukuchan" just outside the station.

Another good meal, and I was satisfied.  I met up with the others in the train station.  As it turned out, I took a different train, so I said goodbye and made my way back to Tokyo.  I had enjoyed spending the last couple of days with some great people, especially Toby, Tim, Steve, Eriko and Kayo.  It was an emotional couple of days, and I had seen some things that were quite confronting, but very important to see nonetheless.  Two days was not nearly enough, however, and I do plan to go back to Hiroshima and spend some more time there, stay at Guesthouse Carpe and eat okonomiyaki from Ron.

Well, that's it from Hiroshima.  I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed being there.  See you again soon.