Miyajima: The Oyster Fest

Whilst Ceduna may lay claims to the real Oyster Fest, Miyajima can have the really big oyster fest! Thousands lined up for bbq oysters which were twice the size of anything we had ever seen before! They simply chucked them on the barbie, cut them open and sold them to anyone and everyone... The queues seemed to go forever... we thought, "these must be good", but after all that neither of us had any. More on food later...

Miyajima is a small island about an hour from the middle of Hiroshima. It involves a streetcar and then a 10 minute ferry from the mainland. As we took the ferry across, dark and gloomy skies formed a grey background, and one could have been forgiven for believing we were about to enter Jurassic Park. However this became less of a possibility as a large orange gate came into view and we quickly docked. We took maps and began our adventure, where the deer roam free and the monkeys ride bicycles.

First stop was a shrine. Don't get me wrong (jono), they are beautifully built buildings, with fantastic pannelling and structures. But to me, they all look very much the same, and as I have no interest in the religious side of it what so ever (not sure what it actually was), I quickly got over it!

We headed from there to a place for lunch... simple japanese food... no oysters for us though...

From there it was up the mountain,a 25 minute walk followed by two cable car rides... Once at the top there were monkeys running around everywhere, although the pink bums were a little bit of a turnoff... fantastic views over Hiroshima and the surrounding islands made it all worthwhile... I think if we were to go back we'd go much earlier so we could climb to the top of the mountain, we didn't actually get to the summit...

Back to food... The Hiroshima prefecture is known for 2 things... Seafood (oysters in particular) and okonomyaki. Not sure if we have previously mentioned it but its like pizza, but with a cabbage base, sort of like an omlette. It also has a special sauce... My theory on food is if you put 2 things together you like you will come out a winner. For example, peanut butter and lettuce is a fantastic, though unikely winner as a sandwhich. Broccoli covered in chocolate, in my opinion, has real potential in the marketplace if only cadbury would stop making furry friends... Therefore, the theory would be that Okonmyaki with Oysters would be magnificent... We didn't however try this for 2 reasons. 1: Jodi may be allergic to Oysters. 2. Jono ate a massive squid for morning tea and didn't feel like any more seafood (pictured, yes it's a squid on a stick!).... According to all others it was really good and the okonomyaki (we had a plain one) was deserving of its repuatation.

We headed back via the ferry and back to our Hiroshima hotel.

The day had been really busy and involved much walking, but for me the highlight came very early in the day. Some of you will know we have been taking Japanese classes and we are slowly picking things up. We had lost a member of our group who had gone to the toilet... feeling the urge to move on, I thought we would go and find this person who was in the toilet. Fortunately I learnt how to ask where the toilet was in Japanese last week. So I (jono) walked to the info booth and politely asked, "sumi-massen, tore wa doco des ka?" (excuse me, where are the toilets?). The lady smiled, laughed and pointed and said in broad English... "Oh the toilet... They are just over there..." Couldn't help but laugh... At least I know the Japanese lessons are working.