Aqueducts & Temples - Final Day (It's a Trip Part 6.0)

It's our final day of this trip! It's gone sooo quickly! We've walked miles upon miles upon miles but I think we saw, ate and drank about as much as possible. Today we saw Nanzenji Temple and Chionin Temple then made our way home to Misawa. For information about where we stayed, how we got around Kyoto, etc., see It's a Trip Part 2.0. To read about how we got to Kyoto from Misawa, see It's a Trip Part 1.0. Or read any of the other gazillion (ok, actually 11 including this one) posts in my It's a Trip series to see how we spent our time in Kyoto/Hiroshima.

Kyoto map with today's locations.

The area where Nanzenji Temple is located was originally developed as a residence for a former Emperor in the mid-1200's, later that century (1291) it was dedicated as a Buddhist Temple. Just like pretty much everywhere else we've visited, the original buildings burned down long ago and have been rebuilt at least once. The grounds of Nanzenji have several buildings, gardens, sub-temples, a rock garden and an aqueduct, we just wandered around, we did not enter any of the paid areas.

We got to the temple via subway, Keage Station is about 600 meters from the temple.

Nanzenji is open everyday except December 28th-31st from 8:40-16:30/17:00 (depending on season). It is free to enter the temple grounds, admission cost to other areas vary, the principle attractions are the Sanmon Gate ¥500 and Hojo Garden ¥500. 

http://www.nanzen.net/

GPS coordinates: 35.012247, 135.793845

Here's a little snippet of monks chanting. We couldn't see them, but they were in the Hatto or Dharma Hall.

Aqueduct that was completed in 1890. The
purpose was to help transport water and
goods from Lake Biwa to Kyoto. It was/is
also used for hydroelectricity.

There was a sign that mentioned a crack in the aqueduct.
Right now it does not need to be repaired but is being closely
monitored. There is a website where you can view the latest
updates about the crack.

Geisha, Castle & Kiyomizudera (It's a Trip Part 5.0)

Here's day 5 of our latest adventure! Started off the morning with a visit to Hiroshima Castle, while a small part of me (ok, big part of me) wanted to go back to Miyajima to do what we missed out on yesterday, we decided based on the time it would take to get there-back along with the forecast for clouds/rain that our time would be better spent getting back to Kyoto and working on our "to do" list there. After the castle, we had our new favorite for lunch and hopped on a train back to Kyoto.

Map below shows our stops in Hiroshima today. Kyoto map is farther down in the post.

Hiroshima Castle was originally built in 1589 and was destroyed by the atomic bomb in 1945. The 5-story castle was rebuilt in 1958. Only the main tower, gate, bridge and a few other small structures were rebuilt. The castle is now a museum about the castle history, Samurai and Hiroshima.

Beware of the mosquitoes around the castle. We lingered in front for maybe 3 minutes taking pictures and I sat on a bench to tie my shoe...I didn't stop swatting and still got at least 10 bites. They got the back of my legs through the slats in the bench!

We took the streetcar to get within walking distance of the castle.

Open from 9:00-17:00/18:00 (depending on season). Closed December 29-31. Admission into the castle is ¥370, entrance to the grounds is free.

http://www.rijo-castle.jp/rijo/pdf/english.pdf

GPS coordinates: 34.402433, 132.459607

Main Gate.

Hiroshima Castle.

Hiroshima - Eats & Drinks (It's a Trip Part 4.2)

YUM! Had some pretty great foods today and found a nice hole in the wall...literally a hole in a wall up a set of stairs. All of these places are marked on the map at the end of Part 4.0.

Lunch was at a restaurant called Bakudanya (http://www.bakudanya.net/) and we had the famous Hiroshima tsukemen. Tsukemen means "dipping noodles." The noodles are served separately from a bowl of broth which in the case of the Hiroshima specialty is cold. The broth is a soy based soup and you have to choose a level of spiciness (1-20) when you order. The noodles also come with cold boiled cabbage, pork, shredded cucumber, leek and sesame seeds.

Of course it couldn't be EASY for us to just go and have a great lunch...I had the address of the restaurant that supposedly invented these noodles, obviously we wanted the original. Or should I say, I wanted to original. The idea of cold noodles and cold broth was not exactly appealing in Keenan's mind. So we walked about 1/2 mile from our hotel to where this restaurant was located. It was closed, there was construction happening on the sidewalk directly in front of it. Crap. I looked up another place that served tsukemen. We walked there, closed. Crap. Finally, we ended up back near our hotel and noticed that right down the street was a place with a picture of tsukemen on the sign outside. Hey, it may not be the original, but we're still trying it, right? 

Well, after this trip when I was trying to find out the name of the place I found out that it's part of a chain, the same chain as the "original," haha, Bakudanya has a bunch of locations! Unfortunately we can't read Japanese so at the time we had no idea! It's kinda funny, but also not funny knowing that the wasted time would have been well spent at Miyajima as we may have gotten there in time to hike Mt. Misen. Oh well! As I said in the last post, missing the hike gives us a reason to go back someday...along with these noodles because they were delicious! Even the skeptic agreed!

GPS coordinates of the original Hiroshima tsukemen shop: 34.387255, 132.460150

GPS coordinates of the location we ended up at: 34.391534, 132.462495

We ordered the top option.

How to eat Hiroshima Tsukemen.
1. Let's challenge extreme your spicy level!
2. Add plenty sesame on top of noodle!
3. Then dip the noodle into the sauce, and slurp them with max sauce!
4. Add the extra spicy at any time you like!

Yummy! All my leeks ended up on a different plate...

We even got cool bibs!

Hiroshima - Peace Memorial Park (It's a Trip Part 4.1)

This was a very somber stop on our Kyoto/Hiroshima trip. As I learned about WWII and the atomic bombings in high school I never in a million years thought that I would be standing in Hiroshima, Japan looking at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial or better known as the Atomic Bomb Dome. That's something you only see in a textbook, right? 

Hiroshima - Miyajima Island (It's a Trip Part 4.0)

And we're off to Hiroshima! (More details about transportation and passes at the bottom of the post.)

While in Hiroshima we visited the Peace Memorial Park, Miyajima Island, Hiroshima Castle, ate some great food and partied at the oldest bar in the city. I did make a mistake in planning which cost us the opportunity to see more of Miyajima. Makes me sad and gives us an excuse to try visiting again some day.

The numbering of the "parts" of this trip are a little weird. This post (Part 4.0) covers getting to/around Hiroshima plus Miyajima Island. Technically we visited the Peace Memorial Park (Part 4.1) before heading off to Miyajima, but the park deserved it's own post. Part 4.2 covers food and drinks of the entire day. Hopefully that makes sense!

Shinkansen in Kyoto.

Green - Kyoto. Yellow - Hiroshima. Gray - Miyajima.