Beer n Snacks Pt 2: Snacks!

Part two: Snacky time!

This is a selection of things we've been buying, often while drunk.

Big Katsu - it's jerky that's crumbed and flavoured like katsu - crumbed pork. There's also this curry flavoured 'sauce' on there. It's much better than you think it will be. I'll be bringing some of these back to keep me occupied on the plane - sort like a dog with a dried pig's ear or something.

A pick from the Cheetos 'Night Selection' - y'know, for those classy after 5:00 soires that we always throw in our hotel room? This is the basil and salt flavour. Not bad.

These chili flavoured chips were a revelation. Perfect with beer and for ruining your dinner.

And next we come to Chip Star. These are like Pringles, but about half the price.
Consomme and Nori flavours picked up from a 100 yen store.

Turns out Lu is a fiend for ice cream. Must be rebelling against her vegan past or something. This little ice cream sandwich was miraculous in that the biscuit part was actually crunchy.

I know you can get Toppe in Melbourne but they're still good. It's like Pocky in reverse.

We bought this on a whim the other day - they must be new cos they're pushing them everywhere. I think it's a diet food. It kind of tasted like a slice your sister made (and subsequently burnt) in home economics. But it has chocolate in it so you eat it anyway.

Tokyo: Ebisu, Ginza

Last time we were in Tokyo we were a little over-awed to really see much of the city beyond places like Shibuya, Harajuku and Ebisu (where we stay). This timewe arrived in Tokyo with an actual plan of attack to see some more of a city that we didn't actually like that much last time.

Whilst we waited for our check in (when Hotel Excellent say 3:00 they MEAN 3:00) , we started off with the OTHER side of Ebisu station and a quick visit to the Yebisu garden Palace. It's the headquarters of Sapporo brewing company. They have a free tour you can take showing you the history of Japanese brewing.

It's all in Japanese so we didn't really learn a lot but at the end there's a tasting lounge. Our kind of museum.

We also hit Ginza. It's the high-end shopping area in a town that is pretty much high end across the board. There's flagship stores of every top tier brand in Ginza and they're all amazing. We're talking like a multi story Chanel store the front of which is a video display like 6 stories high. It's full on – billions of yen flows probably flows through here on an hourly basis.

Not quite ready to drop the cash at the likes of Prada, we hit up Ito-ya – a 7-story stationery store. Doesn't sound that awesome but trust us, it was. For a non-Christian country they have the straight up illest Christmas cards you've ever seen.

Afterwards we hit 300 Bar, just off the main area. The gimmick is that everything here is Y300 – drinks, food – it's all 300. We were downing beers when an older dude came up and started talking to us. His name was Sato and works in a gallery in Ginza. He's pretty well travelled and had been to Australia a number of times (he's a fan of Perth btw). After a few drinks he said he'd show us a good, cheap restaurant in the area. Now, when this happens for some reason you think "hmm, is he gonna take us to an alley and try and knife us?" then you feel super bad for ever doubting that he was just being super nice, just like Sato was.

He'd also tried to get Lu eat some fish. She held out - raw squid is a big step.

He made the restaurant owner pose for a picture. for some reason, probably by way of my tipsy framing, dude looks like a midget.

And anyone who rocks the customary Old Japanese Dude bucket hat is alright by me.

Thie third most scenic spot in Japan: Miyajima.

Miyajima is an island off Hiroshima. It's ranked in the "top 3 most beautiful views" in Japan - and it is a very beautiful place. I don't know what the other two beautiful views are but I'm guessing there's even more sightseers at them, and especially sightseers led by folk in fluro hats armed with flags and megaphones.


These deer are everywhere on the island are cute for about 3 seconds. Late last year the local government decided to stop selling deer food and began to tell people not to feed them. So, now the island is full of starving deer and don't give a fuck. You can appreciate that the man in the photo above is a bit concerned. I think he had an ice cream behind his back.

They don't mind a bit of a swim either.

Or a tasty bit of map.

This is the main event on Miyajima - the torii gate rising from the sea. More of that later.

Evil horse.

Five story pagoda.

You catch a cable car up Mount Misen (elevation 535m above sea level)...

..and up there is a colony of monkeys. Sadly for monkey-loving Will, they are extremely ugly and crazy aggressive monkeys.

Amazing view from the top of the inlad sea.

If you have non-Australian money in the bank, you buy a return ticket on the cable car (approx A$38). If you don't, you can try this special trick of buying a cable car ticket up (approx A$20) and hike down the mountain. The guide book said half an hour. It actually meant half an hour from the cable car depot to the top of Mt Misen. Oops. It was an epic and gruelling - albeit picturesque - supposed 90 minute trek down the mountain (I think it took us almost 2 hours). Now Lu can't use stairs anymore. Some obnoxious English tourists we saw huffing and puffing right near the bottom asked us how far up it was to the top. We said "A long way". I don't think they believed us.

At the bottom was Daisho-in temple, it was easily one of the best temples either of us has ever seen.

Guardian at the gate.

This one's totally blurry but was a room full of lanterns, buddahs and different animals.

Near the entrance was this garden with hundreds of these statues. Like 800 or something?

Lu had to sit cos her legs were stil shaky from the mountain descent. Let's just say it's lucky there's shake reduction the camera I'm holding as well.

These cute little dudes were dotted all throughout the complex.
All in different, equally cute poses.

One more of the torii - at sunset!

The less famous attraction of Miyajima - the big spatula (biggest in Japan!).

Every tourist spot in Japan does very similar special cakes, especially for tourists to take home to their friends and families. Miyajima's special cake's point of difference is that it is shaped like a maple leaf. Lucky for us while they're usually filled with red bean paste, we picked some filled with cream cheese. Winner!

From the ferry back to Hiroshima.

Next: TOKYO.

Hiroshima

We fell a little bit in love with Hiroshima when we came here last year and so had to make it a good part of our trip this time. While Hiroshima isn't exactly a name you associate with fun times, this city has all the goods.

Hiroshima okonomiyaki is incredible. Different to the Osaka variety, it features noodles along with the regular ingredients and is cooked in layers. Our favourite spot to hit one is at Rokutsobuya – in the back streets near our hotel.

Sitting at the grill downing beers while your dinner is being cooked in front of you is one of life's great pleasures. Apparently Rikutsobuya are famous for their gizzards and other grilled organs. Unfortunately after one okonomyaki we couldn't even think about tasting their speciality...

In tradition of the blog, we also indulged in “threesies”, our favourite meal before the dollar crashed. Here's our cake set from a joint near Tokyu Hands. Fabulously frenchy.

On our first night there the Australian peso crashed to 55 yen. We consoled ourselves and our basically halved bank balances with a six pack of tall boys - store bought booze is still the cheapness - in the hotel room and wandered around the city aimlessly, too scared to spend a single cent.

Our first stop on Saturday morning was the Hiroshima Food festival at the castle. Hundreds of stalls, hundreds of thousands of hungry people looking for free samples. Our kind of festival!

We picked up some sweet showbags...

Baked goods (we'd already slammed the four donuts before taking this pic)

Lottee – we also got to play pokies with this fun filled bag.

The local TV station is also in the castle grounds. Studio tour! This is Lu on the set of 'Evening 4'.

Next stop was the Hiroshima Contemporary Art Museum. Lucky for us the Cai Guo-Qiang exhibition opened that day – as part of the Hiroshima Art Prize. he does a range of things - but some of the most impressive are the pieces he makes using black gunpowder and fireworks. At the food festival earlier, we'd seen some black fireworks and had no idea it was one of his pieces. His show is incredible! You may have seen his explosive work at such small events as the Beijing Olympics Opening and Closing ceremonies. Anyone passing through Hiroshima before 12 January must check it out.

This the few from the art museum outside.

The artist was wandering around the exhibition and gave a nod to Will. We hoped that meant we were in for the exclusive launch party that night... but couldn't find him again before the museum closed.

That night we decided to check out Okonomi-mura, a building full of okonomi restaurants, next to the Okonomyaki Republic Building, another building full of okomomi restaurants. Surprisingly, it was full of drunkos and foreigners. The okonomi was good – but nothing on Rokutsobuya.

We spent the eve wandering the streets, checking out the nightlife in between visits back to the hotel to “refuel” before ending up at a cute little bar called Lotus, where we took off our shoes to drink beer and ate some fried seaweed wasabi.

Sunday was relaxing times, post-Suntory times. Wandering the streets and the peace park, which is a central focus of the city for family activities and Sunday events.

This is the bridge that was the target of the A-bomb, that's A-bomb dome in the background - one of the few buildings left standing after the blast as it was directly underneath. It's been preserved.

We walked across to the west-syde and lunched at this fabulous little place called Organ-za. We sat under the mezzanine and chilled for hours. Recommended.

Another special mention for our hotel “Hotel Active!”. Y7500 a night with free buffet breakfast and coffee machine and fancy hotel rooms and all round great place to stay.

This one's for Mel. Walking around - we saw this little gem. There's heaps of thee kinds of shops hawking the loudest all over print hoodies going around.

Next – Miyajima and the reason why Luella can no longer walk down stairs.