Checking in at the Hotel Granvia + First Meal in Hiroshima

We got to Hiroshima in the late afternoon so we checked into our hotel, the Hotel Granvia. Maki and I found this hotel through the American Express website and chose it because it was close to the JR station. Turns out this hotel is connected to the JR station, which turned out to be super convenient. The hotel was also quite nice, with a beautiful lobby and decent-sized rooms. Maki, CJ, MJ and I still had to take 2 rooms but they were pretty, clean and non-smoking.

 The Granvia had a pretty lobby that was decorated for the holidays.

Fodors.com recommended the restaurants and food court at Hiroshima station so we went wandering. We had plenty of options, including a food court on the ground floor and several floors of restaurants. We chose an okonomiyaki place where we watched the cook make our food while we sat on bar stools.  Okonomiyaki, or Japanese pancake, is sort of a cross between a pancake and a frittata. You pour an egg batter on a griddle, then you add vegetables, meat and sauce. It's quite yummy!

Taking the Train to Hiroshima

On Tuesday, November 20, around mid-day, we checked out of the ryokan, picked up lunch at a local sushi restaurant, got some extra cash and took a cab to the train station.

We took a local train to Kyoto, then a shinkansen to Hiroshima.

Me, Alex, CJ, MJ (in stroller) and Maki in front of Ryokan Hakushikaso

MJ and Alex at the train station 

Maki holding the big box of sushi that we picked up for lunch. Note the beautiful wrapping. Japan is the land of beautiful wrapping. 

Nara is known for pressed sushi wrapped in persimmon leaves. 

Here's me holding a piece of saba (mackerel) sushi 

Alex, CJ and Christine enjoying lunch on the train. It's common for people to bring bento on the train and enjoy their food while traveling. There are even carts that come around where you can buy food, candy, water, bottled tea and coffee.

 Christine, CJ, Maki and Alex at the Kyoto train station

More Photos from Nara

Nara was such a beautiful place. I tell Maki that the Japanese excel at creating beautiful spaces. Even more, they are terrific at creating places where there are moving views from every angle. Check out these photos from one of the other temples in Nara Park.

The Deer of Nara

We had read about the deer of Nara prior to the trip. The deer are a national treasure and are not be harmed or scared. But we were still surprised to find the deer swarming the park, as tame as could be, even aggressive about approaching humans for food.

During our walk on our first night, Maki bought a sweet potato and CJ enjoyed feeding the skin and flesh to the deer. We also bought deer crackers that look to be made of rice that they seemed to really love.

We saw many does, a few bucks and a number of fawns. Many of the males had their horns clipped, presumably to keep them from fighting each other. We spotted one deer fight between two males and noticed that the males were considerably dirtier than the does.

Here's me and CJ feeding the deer sweet potatoes. 

CJ got swarmed by deer once they realized he had food. 

The deer got a little aggressive with CJ and he had to run away!

Hmmm... this camera strap looks interesting. 

We taught MJ to pet the deer nicely. At one point, he was petting a deer on the tush, the deer's butt would wiggle and MJ would shriek with laughter.

Todai-iji Temple and the Big Buddha

We ended up visiting Nara Park three times. When we arrived on Sunday afternoon, we took a quick walk to the park before dinner. We didn't see much because it was getting dark but we did see the big gate and a bunch of deer.

On Monday, we spent the day at the Park. We saw the big gate, the Todai-iji Temple, the daibutsuden that houses the big buddha, the big buddha and several other minor (but no less beautiful) temples. We had a yummy soba lunch at the park, after which Maki and I went back to the ryokan so MJ could nap while CJ peeled offed with his grandparents and visited more temples.

On Tuesday, we visited Nara Park again, this time with Alex and Christine who arrived around 9pm on Monday night.  We were incredibly lucky with the weather The sun was out, the sky was blue and it was sweater or light coat temperatures.

Here's the family in front of the big gate, with one of the ever present deer. 

Check out the blue sky. It was a gorgeous, perfect day! 

The daibutsuden that houses the big buddha 

 The large buddha is framed by other buddhas

Mj got to ring the gong.

CJ, Christine and I in front of the gate.

MJ just loved riding on Uncle Alex's shoulders.

Alex and MJ inside the gate. When crossing the gate, you are not supposed to step on the threshold. 

We donated 1000 yen to buy a tile for the daibutsuden roof. We got to the write a message.

Traveling with Family

If you know me and Maki, you know that we love traveling with family and friends. How else do we get to spend so much time with the people we love the most?

On this trip, Maki's parents are joining us. In fact, they arrived in Tokyo a week earlier and met us in Tokyo station the night we arrived. Maki's cousin Hiroko joined us for one night in Nara. And my brother Alex and his girlfriend Christine arrived 2 days later and joined us in Nara.

I have to give Alex and Christine a lot of credit for getting to Nara on their own. From Tokyo station, they had to exchange their rail passes, get their tickets for the Narita Express, get their tickets for the shinkansen to Kyoto and train to Nara, get their cell phone - and do it all without knowing any Japanese.

Alex and Christine arrived in Nara on Monday night, so they got to spend one night at the ryokan and see the Todai-iji Temple complex on Tuesday before we left for Hiroshima. I love that I get to spend over a week with my brother, just hanging, not talking about work, seeing great sights, enjoying yummy food, and getting to know his girlfriend a little better. The boys just adore Uncle Alex so it's a double bonus.

We see Maki's parents quite a bit now that they live in VA. MJ loves Grandma Linda but he adores Grandpa Tak. It was a treat to spend time with Hiroko. She works for an organization that brings ballet and opera companies from around the world to Japan. Her English is impeccable, she's absolutely gorgeous and she is unbelievably sweet.

Staying at the Ryokan Hakushikaso in Nara

When Maki, CJ and I visited Kyoto five years ago, we stayed in a ryokan, or Japanese guesthouse. Ryokan are a huge tradition in Japan. They are often beautiful wooden buildings, the rooms are made of wood and have tatami mats on the floor, and they serve traditional Japanese breakfasts and dinners that take advantage of local foods.

Like last time, I used JapaneseGuesthouses.com to book a ryokan in Nara. We spent two nights at the Ryokan Hakushikaso in Nara, which is located close to the temple complex and not far from the train station.

You can spend a lot of money staying at a ryokan but the Hakushikaso was well priced. Our stay included breakfast and dinner, the rooms were large and beautiful, and there was a public bath on the 2nd floor.

When we arrived at the ryokan, we asked for dinner to be served in Grandma and Grandpa Tak's room at 6:30, which meant we had about an hour and a half to walk around the see the town. So we headed to the temple complex and visited the large template gate. The highlight of the evening was the deer! Nara is home to many, many deer that are absolutely tame. In fact, it's illegal to harm them and they are considered national treasures. As we were walking to the temple gate, a sweet potato cart went past us. I love sweet potatoes so Maki bought me a roasted sweet potato. I thought it was for me but Maki's dad said no, the sweet potatoes are for the deer! So CJ, MJ and I broke off pieces of the skin and flesh to feed some deer we found in a little park. There must have been a dozen of them surrounding us, begging for food. The boys were squealing with delight as the deer nuzzled them and jostled each other to get food.

The breakfasts and dinner were amazing! There must have been 8 or 10 dishes at every meal and each meal was different from the others. We're told that Nara is known for its oysters, fish and persimmon.

On our first night, I took a bath in the public bath and it was incredible. First, you wash yourself and then sit in this beautiful, tiled bath that can fit maybe 10 people. The baths are same gender only and I shared my bath with two other women. 

The boys were up very early both mornings so we gave them some electronics time to keep them quiet until breakfast time. This is them around 5:30 in the morning.

Here is one of the breakfasts, which included: rice, miso soup, tofu, fish soup, bell peppers with miso paste, fish and fish sprinkles.

Here's dinner on our second night, which included: miso soup, somen noodles, lobster, beef, chicken, fish, rice, and pickles.

Taking the Train to Nara

On Sunday morning, we were up bright and early because of the jetlag. I was up at 4am and the boys were up by 5:30am. By 6:30am, we all got dressed and Maki took both boys to the local 7-Eleven for some yogurt, miso soup, rice balls and a natto roll for himself.

It's amazing how integral 7-Elevent is to Japanese life. 7-Elevens are everywhere and you can buy the craziest stuff in them: sushi rolls, rice balls filled with salted plum or salmon, all kinds of hot and cold teas, minor electronics, yada, yada. Whenever we're in Japan, I have a rice ball from 7-Eleven pretty much every day. And on this trip, I discovered lightly sweetened plain yogurt from Meiji Dairy that is to die for. As the name implies, it's not too sweet, it's got a tartness that is usually processed out of American yogurt and it's wonderfully creamy. Yum.

 Here's CJ holding up a natto roll, which Maki adores. CJ and I think natto is stinky.

After packing everything up, we caught a cab to Tokyo station. We met Maki's parents at 10:30 so we would have an hour to buy food for the train and then get on the shinkanesen. We got a bunch of yummy food, including all kinds of nigiri sushi, enari and chirashi sushi. The train was scheduled to leave at 11:30 and it did. You can set your clock by the trains, which run so efficiently.

Here we all are on the platform, waiting for the shinkansen to go to Kyoto.

Here's Maki with his awesome sushi lunch.

We took the shinkansen to Kyoto and then transferred to a local train to Nara. I guess Nara is not served by the shinkansen. We love the trains in Japan, but especially the shinkansen. When we bought our rail passes in the US, we paid the extra $70 per person to green the green pass, which gives us reserved seats on the shinkanses, an additional luxury on what can be crowded trains.

It took 2 1/2 hours to get to Kyoto, we waited a half hour or so in Nara, then 45 minutes on the local train to get to Nara. By 3:30pm, we were walking out of the Nara station to our ryokan, or Japanese guesthouse.

First NIght in Tokyo

After taking the Narita Express to Tokyo Station, we met Maki's dad so we could all get our shinkansen (bullet train) tickets for Kyoto and Nara the next day. Then we caught a taxi to our hotel, the Asakasa Yoko.

The Asakasa Yoko was less than terrific but it was fine for one night. The lobby was very smoky and we could only get smoking rooms. I had a minor panic attack at the idea of smoking rooms for the boys but the front desk person let us visit one of the rooms and it was bearable. So around 8pm, we finally got to check in, take showers and go to bed.

Despite being exhausted, I insisted on showers (a bath for MJ) for everyone because I'm convinced taking a shower or bath after a long day of travel gets rid of what I call the plane uggies, warms the body and helps with sleep. I make the whole family do this on every trip, whether we're going to CA, Japan or Mexico.

Hotel rooms in Tokyo are generally tiny so we had to book 2 rooms for our family. Because my room turned out to less smoky, both boys slept with  me and Maki had peace and quiet. The boys slept great.

Traveling to Japan

Traveling to Japan is always hard, no matter how slice it. We left our house on Friday at 9:00am, arrived at Dulles airport around 9:45am, checked in, and made our way to the lounge. I was able to send a few last minute emails from the lounge.

We left Dulles around 11:30 and spent 14 1/2 hours flying to Tokyo, non stop over the North Pole. We got to see glaciers in Alaska. When we arrived at Narita Airport around 4pm on Saturday (we lost a day), it took us another 2 1/2 hours to: go through immigration, go through customs, pick up our pre-ordered cell phone, put the car seat in a locker for the duration of the trip, send our second suitcase to our hotel in Tokyo for the second half of the trip, exchange our JR rail voucher for rail passes, get our tickets for the Narita Express, change some money into yen and get food for the train.

By 6:30pm. we were finally on the Narita Express, bound for Tokyo Station. We met Grandpa Tak at Tokyo Station, where we picked up our tickets for Kyto, then took a taxi to our hotel.We were finally in our hotel rooms around 8am, after nearly a full day of travel.

We had to book 2 rooms because most Tokyo hotel rooms are tiny and can ony accommodate 2 people.After enjoying some o-nigiri and yogurt from 7-Eleven and baths for everyone, we were finally in bed around 10:30am.

Maki and I were beat but the boys seemed to be in very good spirits.The boys were amazing. MJ did not cry one while on the plane and CJ was very helpful. CJ read books to MJ, he pushed the stroller, and he kept MJ good company during our various errands at Narita. Were they perfect? Of course not! MJ squirmed a lot and had a tough falling asleep. CJ and MJ argued over the Legos that Maki bought them at the airport store. And the boys argued over which movies to watch. But all in all, there were no meltdowns, nothing broke, and I was a satisfied mommy.

Saving Up My Miles for Business Class Tickets to Japan

It's taken me over five years, but we were able to get business class tickets and most of our hotel rooms on miles.

Flying business class to Japan was amazing. We flew in a Boeing 777 and got to enjoy seats with ridiculous amounts of leg room. Our seats had 3 modes: upright, relax and bed. It was ridiculous. For once, I got a few hours of sleep because I put my seat in bed mode and got to actually stretch out. How awesome is that.