Expensive Melons

After packing our bags in Hakone, we boarded a local train from Hakone-Yumoto to Odawara.  From Odawara, we took the Hikari Railstar to Hiroshima, via Shin-Osaka.  Even on the shinkansen, the trip to Hiroshima takes five to six hours from Odawara, which itself is just a bit southwest of Tokyo.  Again on the shinkansen, we experienced warm, uncirculating air.  This wasn't quite as uncomfortable as the Narita Express from Narita to Tokyo, but it was still not the comfortable environment typically found on European and Canadian trains.

Our lunch was another train station bento from the Odawara station.  I was thoroughly addicted to these boxed lunches, so much so that I have the desire to petition my university for a bento station on campus.   The rice, despite being room-temperature in the bento, is still sticky and delicious, and the fishcake is flavorful without being overwhelmingly fishy, as many fishcake in the U.S. are.

We arrived in Hiroshima around 3:00 p.m.  The city is a much larger metropolitan center than I expected, especially since my grandparents, whose grandparents immigrated from Hiroshima, spoke of it being a rural farming community many years ago.  A taxi transported us to our hotel, the ANA Crowne Plaza Hiroshima.

This hotel, being our first non-ryokan of the trip, was a business-oriented hotel with a totally different culture than the ryokan.   Here was a faster pace, where we could feel more of the technology and less of the traditions.  But in typical Japanese fashion, a small Shinto shrine was nestled on the corner of the block, between our hotel and other modern skyscrapers.

The ANA Hiroshima had a dimly-lit, modern lobby--they were going for upscale and chic.  The staff was friendly, bowing and greeting guests as they walked by, but the bend-over-backwards hospitality of the ryokan just wasn't there.  At first glance, I would typically opt for the ANA's atmosphere over the ryokan, but looking back on the trip, the ryokan were highlights that I appreciated so much more than the modern hotels.

But I had no complaints about the ANA Hiroshima.  We were to spend three nights there.  The rooms were comfortable, and I had in-room Internet access for the first time on the trip!  Funny, in the most wired country in the world, I was finally online!

We walked two blocks up the street to the SOGO Department Store, where we had dinner at a Chinese restaurant on the dining floor.   This 9-level department store was my mom and sister's favorite place of the trip.  I'm not much for department stores, but I will admit that being able to purchase pets, gourmet food, dinner, school supplies, and haute couture all in one store is impressive.  [Though it is an upscale version of the Wal-Mart concept ;-)  ...hehe]

We tried a waffle-iron manju, freshly-made at SOGO.  The outside of this manju was a crisp, thin, Belgian waffle-like crust, and it was filled with sweet azuki.  Not the best, though.  I much preferred the Hakone manju.

There were huge bins of colorful candy, which appeared so cartoonish.  Long display cases were full of beautifully-shaped mochi, filled with every ice cream flavor imaginable (well, except for the "Superman" flavor, which has to be only in America!).

The market was impressive--a full grocery store with a huge spread of fresh fish and produce.  Most entertaining was the ridiculously expensive cantaloupe.  In the U.S., these melons are no more than USD $3, but premium melons in Japan cost upwards of USD $100!  Our breakfast the next morning had some sliced cantaloupe, which was an indication that we were enjoying an upscale breakfast.