Japan 2015 - Day 12 - Matsue to Hiroshima

April 18: Oshima Island Museum of Japanese Emigration to Hawaii

Breakfast this morning was Japanese/American buffet.  This is Sweetie's breakfast.


This is mine.


This day was mostly for traveling.  We had a long distance to go until we reached our final destination, Hiroshima.


I don't think I would ever get tired of these views.


Our first stop was the neatest rest stop of the whole trip to me. It's called Michi no Eki Takano (Roadside Station Takano). 


I lingered a little bit here at these oranges, but decided not to buy one because they were a bit pricey. They are called Dekopon.  I learned later that it's a sweet variety of mandarin orange. I had bought oranges twice before on this trip and both times they were sour. I decided I would quit on the oranges already. I shoulda bought one of these to try though, yah. Ack.


Oh well, maybe next time.  I would love it if we had one of these roadside stations in Hawaii.


You ever heard of kenchin soup? According to the sign in front of the pot, that's what this is. It's a Japanese vegetable soup with Buddhist origins, having first been made in the Kenchoji Temple, the first Zen Buddhist Temple in Japan. Sounds healthy. I didn't buy this either. 


So, I didn't get the dekopan orange, and I didn't get the kenchin soup. But what I did get were two of these apple tarts, one for me and one for Sweetie. I really, really wanted to get the mochi mochi doughnut too, but I resisted. Why, yah? I shoulda just got um already.


The apple tarts were super, super delicious.


A lady in front of me at the register bought three bags of these apple chips so I picked up one bag too. I never tried it.  I gave it away as omiyage so I dunno if it was good or not.


This lemon daifuku was just okay. I shoulda got the mochi mochi doughnut instead. 


On the road again . . . 




We stopped here for lunch.




The sign below says "Kaki no Kushiyaki" - Grilled oyster skewers. You see the kanji 串? That is "kushi" which means skewer. Doesn't it look like two things on a skewer? I think that is the coolest kanji ever.


The food on the outside looked good, but me and Sweetie decided to go for ramen this time. 


We put our money in one of those machines that spits out a ticket.  The kitchen automatically received our order.


We kept our tickets and waited for our numbers to be called.  Which was not too easy because they were calling out numbers really fast, and we had to listen for "go-hyaku-niju-yon" and "shi-hyaku-ju-hachi" . . . I think.


We both got the same thing . . . shoyu ramen.  It was gooooood.


We had a little time after eating to do some shopping.  I thought this was strange.


At a lot of the rest stops, there were these smoking areas.  They were usually stationed far away.  I liked that.


This is where I made small-kine commotion. The rest room I used was for women and handicapped people. I think that's what the sign means? No? Maybe it means woman with handicapped person. Anyway, I go in and do my business and I'm kinda rushing in case a woman with a handicapped person needs to use the toilet. When I'm pau, I look on the wall beside me and there are all these buttons, but no English.  I have to flush the toilet, right?  I can't just leave it like that. Especially here in Japan where everything is done all proper and all. So, I take a guess and press a button. A loud alarm goes off. BAAAP, BAAAP, BAAAP, BAAAP!!! Holy moly! I frantically press the button again and again.  I press all of the other buttons. The alarm doesn't stop. BAAP, BAAP, BAAAP!!! Then I hear knocking on the door. A voice goes in Japanese, "Are you okay in there? Daijobu desuka? Is everything all right? Ii desuka?" I slide open the door. A man with a very concerned look on his face and about ten other people behind him are looking at me.  I raise my arms and say, "Sorry, sorry, machigatta." I think that means "mistake". I wasn't sure. But one thing I was sure of . . . I was so shame.


I took this photo at a restroom later on.  I hope I never forget that this means "flush".


Back on the road again we eventually crossed this bridge.  It took us to Oshima Island, one of the largest islands in the Seto Naikai Strait. 


We visited the Museum of Japanese Emigration to Hawaii.


It is located in the town of Suo Oshima, sister city of Kauai.


The museum features photographs, exhibits and artifacts of the emigrants in Hawaii. It reminded me a lot of the Hawaii Plantation Village in Waipahu.






























Look at the sticker on this suitcase. There's a picture of an airplane and then "Kobayashi" after it. Like "Kobayashi Travel" our tour company. What a coincidence, yah.


Me and Sweetie left the museum a little before everybody else because we wanted a little extra time to explore the area.




















We startled this bird, and then it startled us when it made a loud whooshing sound as it flew off. It was huge and so beautiful. I wish my reaction time was quicker so that I coulda got a better shot.




We arrived at our hotel, the Hiroshima Rihga Royal, later in the afternoon. Just like most of our other hotel rooms, this one was really nice.


But the best, best feature of all was this huge picture window. Have you ever seen anything like this?


This was our view. Isn't that unreal?


The hotel is located near this Sogo Department Store.


This multilevel shopping area is between the hotel and the department store. Howzdat, hah?


Right after settling in, we met our guide in the hotel lobby. She led us to this shopping arcade.


Surprisingly, me and Sweetie didn't stop here at this 100-yen store.  We opted to check out a Don Quijote instead.


We were on our own for dinner. We bought a few bread things from a small bakery in the mall and we got the sushi and the tako salad from the basement of the Sogo Department Store.


I thought it was neat that they gave me this small ice pack to help keep the tako salad cold. In fact, when we returned to shop there again the next day, we found a table with a small ice chest that was filled with these. 


Only two more days to go.