Blog

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

I knew I would regret it if I succumbed to laziness and didn’t try to find a place to eat Hiroshima’s variant of okonomiyaki. Not eating meat, invariably when the questions come post-travel — ie. “Did you eat so-and-so ramen?” I always have to answer “No,” which seems to cause the Japanese questioners some degree of consternation. However, okonomiyaki can be ordered niku nashi (without meat). The problem was that I didn’t want to go to a guidebook recommended place with tourist crowds et al (for one thing, when traveling on one’s own it always feels like you’re the only one not with someone at those places). Naoko suggested I just ask the hotel receptionists to recommend a jimoto (local) place, so I did, and they directed me to an establishment a couple of blocks down the street (“Masahisa” I think it was called), and it was just what I was looking for, one owner/chef, only a few customers (one family, a few lone salarymen, one spinstress, and me), and one of those quiz/variety shows with a million talento revealing that even a only-4-years-in-Japan non-native like myself sometimes knows more about the country than the natives do. While nothing that knocked my socks off or seemed radically different than the Osakan variety of okonomiyaki that I’m used to, it was good all the same and I won’t have to feel guilty when those “Did you eat…?” questions come my way next week.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

My hotel in Hiroshima. The somewhat tacky sign you can see here highlighting their low rates is about the only uncool thing about the place. When you walk into the hotel, it feels like a boutique hotel, not a 5000 yen ($42) a night place. Lots of hydroponic plants, staff always dressed in black, and a “fireplace” consisting of some logs in front of a plasma tv that has reproduced flames flickering (well, that is a bit tacky too I guess, but….) Comes with a very nice Japanese/Western breakfast buffet too with fabulous onigiri (rice balls). Contrary to most “business” hotels in Japan, my single is quite roomy too, complete with a minus ion doo-hickey and LCD TV.

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; }
.flickr-yourcomment { }
.flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; }
.flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; }

I know I probably committed a cultured tourist’s sin by foregoing Hiroshima’s famous okonomiyaki variety in favor of a falafel (but hey, gimme a little credit I didn’t go to McDonalds), but you have to understand that I’ve been waiting 4 years for this kind of food. I’m sure one can eat falafels in Tokyo somewhere, but I don’t know where (kebabs yes but I don’t eat meat — leave me a comment with recommendations if you know a good falafel place in Tokyo), and thus both Naoko and I have been longing for the kind of food that was part of our regular San Francisco diet (Ali Baba in Lower Haight). So I couldn’t pass up the chance to go to Churi, co-run by an Israeli and his Japanese wife. While slightly different than the falafel sandwich I used to eat in S.F., it was still pure heaven. Topped it off with a couple of Baileys and milk drinks and good conversation — surprise surprise someone actually came up to me and started a conversation in Japanese! — at Bar Alcoholiday nearby. Found out about both via the very useful gethiroshima website (they also produce a very nice map available at places around town).