Kansai trip in Japan - Hiroshima, Kobe, Nara | Good Fishies

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Kansai trip in Japan - Hiroshima, Kobe, Nara

15 January 2009 1,794 views Comments

When our 1 year in Japan was just about coming to an end we decided to do one last trip down south before we left. We had already traveled through all of Hokkaido, visited Kyoto and Tokyo (a few times), so we decided that it was time to see Hiroshima, and revisit the Kansai area.

We booked a tour package through JAL tour which is operated by JAL (Japan Airlines) ((beware, the website requires mad Japanese skills)). It may have been called a tour, but essentially it just meant we were booking flights and hotels together, through JAL. We got a great deal consisting of flights from Chitose to Hiroshima and from Tokyo back to Chitose as well as hotels in Hiroshima, Kobe and Yokohama. The only thing we found out is that these tours are usually impossible to change once they’re booked. We tried to maneuver our dates around a bit after we had booked them but found ourselves unable. Our whole trip/tour was 11 days starting in Hiroshima.

Hiroshima

Hiroshima might be famous for couple things: okonomiyaki, the red tori in Itsukushima Shrine/Miyajima, oysters, and the atomic bomb.
Miyajima is a small island near Hiroshima city, and is possibly the most photographed Japanese tourist spot - the famous red tori. (You’ve seen it. the red gate in the water?) We wandered our way to Miyajima with a series of street trams, JR rail and ferry; we sat and waited for the sunset near the Itsukushima Shrine while deers tried to eat our bags. (Yes there were tons of wild deers)
We enjoyed a nice dinner in Hiroshima. Every city/town/village in Japan has a specialty food that is promoted for tourism reason. If you visited Hiroshima Japanese people would ask you if you had oysters there. We did. It was yumlicious.

The next day we visited the Hiroshima Peace memorial. It was a gray day -pouring rain, so it seemed fitting.
Hiroshima is an amazing city. The tempo of the city seemed somehow slower than the rest of Japan and the public transit system was convenient easy to navigate. Who can say no to a nice tram ride through the city?

Kobe

We have heard many good things about Kobe from our friends; it was definitely a spot that we had been meaning to visit for a while. We took a quick Shinkansen ride from Hiroshima to Shin-Kobe for aprox. $100CDN a person (that’s considered cheap for Japanese Shinkansen rides.) We got to stay in an amazing hotel in Kobe - the Hotel Monterey. The hotel looked and felt like a medieval castle/dungeon.

Kobe is one of Japans busiest port cities. As former Vancouverites, we carry with us an immense love for the ocean. It was hard to describe why we loved Kobe as instantly as we did, but it was the kind of city that possessed such charm that we couldn’t help but fall in love with it. It might also have been the beautiful harbor view, or possibly the edgy kansai fashion, or even the foreign influences in the city (we found a wine bar… with PROSCIUTTO!!). Either way, we had a pleasant day wondering the street of Kobe and enjoying the beautiful harbor view. It felt like the kind of city where one could settle down.

Nara

When you mention Nara to anyone in Japan, the first thing comes back is “Watch out for the deers!”. Inside the famous Nara park there are deer roaming freely all over the place. Like, a lot of them. You can buy senbei, a Japanese cracker to feed the deers. According to our lonely planet book, a few foreigners were spotted buying these deer crackers and eating them. These crackers are for the deers!!!!!!! Anyway, we bought some 99¥ deer senbei and soon after we were, ourselves, surrounded and being attacked by deers. The whole experience of Nara park: feeding deers, watching other tourists (with smaller arm-spans) scream from being (viciously) attacked by deers, listening to megaannoying megaphone announcements from teachers on the elementary school field trips, avoiding and dodging the 10 groups of junior high-school students who thought it was funny to chase the deers, and finally (and most importantly) watching out for deer poop. Nara park in some regards suffers from its own popularity. It is said that there are at least 5 school field trips there every day. It definitely requires a whole new level of zen to navigate your way through Nara Park.