Mia-tachi no tabi - Day 10 - Castle on a hill

Today we journeyed to Hikone to visit the castle there. We gabbed breakfast on the way and Rich learned the dangers of buying unknown drinks. We both got grapefruit juice. Mine was 100% juice and his was 6% alcohol. It was 8:30 in the morning. He drank it all and got a headache. It was likely this that later caused him to put two slippers on one foot.

There are 4 castles in Japan that are considered National Treasures and Hikone-jou is one of them. It was about a 40 minute trip to Hikone, then a 12 minute walk to the castle. Admittance was 600 yen. It's construction began in 1603 by Ii Naokatsu. It was completed nearly 20 years later in 1622. 

As with most castles, the outside was more impressive than the inside. The inside was empty and involved lots of very steep stairs:

But the view was good.

Japan, like China, is enamoured with mascots. Just about every city has one. This is Hikone's (on the left):

It is a cat with a samurai helmet. His name is Hiko-nyan.

We left Hikone in the afternoon and on the way back to Shin Osaka, I offhandedly suggested that we take the shinkansen to Hiroshima. Rich immediently jumped on board with the idea, but my mom opted to return to the hotel. We gave her directions and parted ways at the station. From Osaka to Hiroshima is a 87 minute shinkansen ride. Once we arrived Rich voted to see Peace Park, so that is what we did. 

The streetcar stops right in front of the A-Bomb Dome:

Then we saw the Children's Peace Memorial:

And snapped this great cloud photo near the museum:

We found a free museum called Rememberence Hall or something, which was interesting, but closed 15 minutes after we entered.

Then we walked back to the station and saw the city at night:

And another man hole cover to add to our collection:

Mia-tachi no tabi - Day 9 - White Beloved Cookie

We had a leisurely morning at the hotel and then checked out, leaving our baggage at the front. We then made our way to Shiroi Koibito Park, which is a park around the Shiroi Koibito cookie factory. The park is actually really cute and had lots of fun little things. Like this guy:

Which pops out if you lean on the wrong post of the fence surrounding the apple tree he guarded. There are four little boulders and each one has a different little police dude from different countries warning you away from the apples. There also bubbles realased from the tops of the gazebos every 15 minutes I think. There is a clock parade that goes off every hour:

There are dozens of rose bushes (they line the fence around the park):

Then inside, there is a cafe, shop, and candy demo:

The aforementioned are all free. The paid section was 600 yen and included displays of old chocolate cups and chocolate boxes:

A view of the factory (which was facinating to watch!):

There was a cute cafe that we wanted to get a parfait, but didn't have enough time. But there was a baby grande piano that played itself:

And, for some reason, a gramophone collection:

There was also a old toy collection, but we were rushed by the time we got there, so I didn't get any pictures. We returned to Sapporo station and got lunch at a sushi place:

This is the second time we've eaten lunch at a place were I refuse to order anything, yet I still walk out full after poaching food from people's plates.... 

We picked up our luggage, took the train to the airport, got our boarding passes, and then *sniff* said goodbye to Myra and rushed to our gate. The plane was then late. 

After we boarded, my mom and I got into a mini argument over whether or not the flight attended was harassing the lady across from us or if he was being reasonable when he told her to put her somewhat large purse under the seat in front of her. Then he ended it by coming by and telling Rich to put his tiny little (frilly) purse away for take off. It was kind of pathetic. Also, the whole plane smelt of fish and it was nauseating. Rich finally determined that the source of the smell was from the annoying guy behind us. It did not make for a pleasant trip.

We eventually made it to Kansai International Airport, then to Osaka, and finally to our hotel, which has very tiny rooms:

We picked up gyoza from 551 Horai at the station which we ate for dinner before collapsing into deep slumber.

Mia-tachi no tabi - Day 8 - Wandering through the past

Today we explored the Historic Village of Hokkaido. It is an outdoor museum exhibiting buildings and furnishings from the late 1800s to the mid 1900s. It is absolutely awesome. The park covers 50 hectors of land and has over 40 buildings. Here is my favorite building:

It is a fishermans lodge that housed 60 fishermen on the left and the owner's family on the right. Here is the entirety of the left side:

The fishermen slept along the outside and on the second level. The center was used for cooking, eating, and working.

The owner's side is about the same size, but divided into several rooms.

It was really cool to explore!

Another building was devoted to silk production and two volunteers were demonstrating the collection silk thread from the cocoons. The little white things in the bowl are cocoons and the thread is being wound around the brown device. The spool in the lower right is the product of 80 cocoons.

Here is a picture of a Japanese inn:

A clinic surgery room: 

Woodcutter's lodge:

We spent about 3.5 hours here and would have stayed longer if our feet and stomachs had been killing us. We caught a bus back to the festival to get food, which wasn't spectacular, but was at least filling. And fun to watch them make (ramen):

Then my mom went back to the hotel to recover while we went to a cat cafe to recover. No, we did not eat any cats here.

It was fun, but our cats are much better. Myra was happy to pet cats for the first time in 6 months though.

We went back the festival for a bit to hear the music, which wasn't bad, but wasn't really interesting either. So we left and went in search of a supermarket. We found the old Hokkaido Governemt building on the way:

But failed to find a supermarket. We went to a conbini instead. Then we returned to the hotel and played cards. It was fun.

Mia-tachi no tabi - Day 7 - Sapporo

Since we all went to bed early last night, we woke up early enough to take an earlier train and get into Sapporo ahead of schedule. We checked into our hotel, which is really cute, and headed to the Sapporo Beer Museum:

It wasn't very large and the displays were only in 

Japanese, but the exhibits were fun. Especially the ones with the little models showing the production process:

After viewing the museum, we tried beer. Or, my mom ordered a sampler and Rich and I got sodas, then we tried sips of her beer. It was interesting, but neither of us liked them.

After that we wandered around a bit and then returned to the hotel to wait for Myra to arrive. We saw two weddings and a cool phone:

And then Myra finally arrived! She got a little lost on the way to the hotel and took twice as long as she should have.

After giving Myra all her presents, souvenirs from Nikko and Hakodate as well as stuff from home, we set out to view the festival and hunt for Genghis Khan. The festival filled blocks of Odori Park and was crowded and smelled good. Which was a little painful, considering we had skipped 

lunch and were now starving.

 So after a bit we left and found the Genghis Khan restaurant. We got the all you can eat option, though for some reason we still can't figure out, when we initially placed the order the waiter thought we were ordering a la carte. But I repeatedly pointed at the correct menu item and Myra asked what drinks were included with it, so we can't figure out what confused him. But we got it cleared up and enjoyed our delicious meal:

So Ganghis Khan, or in Japanese ジンギスカン (jangisukan), is a lamb BBQ where you cook lamb and veggies on a grill at your table. The all you can eat includes all the meat, veggies, rice, and drinks we could consume in 100 minutes. It was fantastic and the most food any of us have eaten since we got to Japan.

Afterwards we pried ourselves from our seats, checked the festival one more time, saw Sapporo Tower all lit up:

And then went back to the hotel to finally sleep. Except everyone wanted to shower first, then we played a card game (I won 2 out of 3 after a slow start), then we went to sleep.