3 Days in Hiroshima and Okayama on a Budget

3 Days in Hiroshima and Okayama on a Budget

You know, people ask us why we do this, why we drag ourselves and our unsuspecting parents across entire countries on a budget that barely covers like a decent cup of coffee in most airports. And honestly, we don’t know. We We just don’t have a lot of money. We just don’t have a lot of money. But what we do want to do is still travel the world even though we don’t have a ton of money. And maybe probably you want to do that, too. So, that brings us here. 3 days in Hiroshima, Okayama, $125 per day budget for the two of us. Smack dab in the middle of cherry blossom season. and Golden Week to try to see and do as much as we can. Plus, it’s my parents first time here. We got to make it special. It’s the best time of year to be here and also the biggest budget challenge. I mean, we’re in Hiroshima right now. So, the thing that we’re going to do is eat okonomiyaki if we can figure out how to order. That’s what we’re going to do. Right. Hiroshima. Foodies are probably the only people in the world that when you say the name of this place, they don’t immediately think of its, you know, infamous event. We’re going to talk about that later. No, they think okonomiyaki. And for good reason. We ended up just pointing at a few things and moments later, the sizzling began. Now, they call it a Japanese pancake, but let’s be clear. If you’re like picturing a fluffy disc cascading with maple syrup, you’re on the wrong shin ken here. This pancake is an epic savory noodlepacked adventure on a hot plate. We thought we had ordered a beer, but then a round of sake showed up. As the great Bob Ross said, those aren’t mistakes, those are happy accidents. Here, you can have some good. Okay. Eat it back. Can I Can I eat you? So, you just like Yeah, it’s so good. The noodles are perfectly soft and crispy, and the squid is really good. Also, their sauce apparently is original, homemade. It’s like not too sweet, but also just the right amount of sweet and savory. This place is great. I like the sauce. It’s not spicy. Stomach’s full, budget mostly intact. Off we go to the Peace Memorial Park. You know, seeing the cherry blossoms here of all places really adds a whole another layer of meaning. Hiroshima doesn’t seem to wear its history like a scar, but more like a quiet, powerful reminder. This is the perfect example of that. People, friends, families gathered under the cherry blossoms, drinking, eating, laughing. It’s a tradition called hanami. I love the commitment that everybody has here to Sakura season. Like, everybody’s out. It’s a Tuesday afternoon and there are thousands of people just lining up with their mats, their picnic blankets, and their full on drinks and food. And it’s just such a such a cool season. It’s so beautiful to be here. This is Hiroshima’s spirit right in front of us. Resilience, happiness, beauty. They aren’t solely defined by their darkest day, but by what they did after it. With that in mind, we made our way into the Peace Museum. We grabbed some quick tickets off Cluke to skip the line and just headed right in. Truthfully, we don’t do museums all that often. Very honestly, as infrequently as possible, but we keep coming back to this one. The main message of the Hebusha, the survivors of the A-bomb here, said that no one else should suffer as we have. And I think that that’s the perfect message here. It’s not about hatred or anger or revenge, but of just harmony, peace for all, and just making sure that this doesn’t ever happen again. We took a moment to talk about it under the cherry blossoms mostly about how the city incredibly willed itself back into existence. And as I’m saying this, honestly, I’m starting to realize that there’s no good way to transition from this into anything else. So, at night, Hiroshima sheds its reflective side and puts on its party hat. Whose footage was better? Okay, it’s night time, everybody. Hello. Where are we going? All right, so we’re heading to Hungary right now to go and find ourselves some dinner. Uh, consensus among the group here seems to be pointing towards maybe sushi. Unclear yet. Sushi? Yes, maybe. What? Maybe. Party Central is definitely Honduri with its bright lights, super mysterious cool restaurants, and multi-story temple to okonomiyaki. Tonight, we’ve got something else in mind, though. An old budget friendly favorite. So, you get your ticket for your place in line. Scan your ticket to get your table number. Find your table with the lights overhead and order endless 75 cent plates of sushi from an iPad delivered by this magical thing. So, why do we love this place so much, Lisa? It’s just affordable. really good sushi and it’s so much fun and you get to order off an iPad and also conveyor belt sushi and it comes right to you. You’ll see little eyes. Cheers. Cheers. I mean, even the restaurant itself is gamified. For every five plates you eat, you get a chance to win a prize. It’s game time. There’s so many things on this table. Are we going to win? Oh, not this time, I guess. Oh, please let us win. Nope. Oh, not this time either. All your dessert shopping. Mhm. Sure am. Oh, is that chocolate cake? Look at that. Yes. Last play. So, see if we win, right? Build the stakes for us. I’m going to go with this. Your order will arrive shortly. No pressure. All right, everybody. Hands in. This is the one we win. Go. Can you tell right away if you want? No. That’s not a good sign. Should we all touch it and open it? Yes. What did we get? Okay. Rub the orb. Wow. A magnet. It’s a Pokemon magnet. Victory. A raging bolt. I had to look that up. I stopped playing Pokémon when there were more than 151. A small, slightly confusing, but exciting victory. All right. What’s your guess as to how much this whole meal cost? We had 20 plates of sushi. I’m going to guess $32. 32. 35. Prices, right? Going over. 38. My guess is 29. Note for the displayed amount included. I’ll do the math in your current. Right in the head. That’s so much food for $32. 20 plates of sushi plus the desserts in the gym. Okay, not bad. $328. Split that in half, leaves us with just over 16 bucks for dinner. Nice. Should probably get a picture for this trip, though. Full of sushi and a new pointless toy, we made our way into the nearby arcade for a quick photo, which turned into quite the experience. So, this one looks the most natural. All the other ones look a little bugeyed. All right, let’s do it. into here. Ah, Purikura, where they take your perfectly mostly, you know, normal faces and turn you into a wideeyed, sparkly anime character who appears to have had a minor encounter with a steamroller, an airbrush, and a jar of glitter. It’s perfect. That was a race. My favorite response to that was your dad saying, “What’s going on?” We couldn’t leave without doing this. Which one do you want? The only one. Toad. Mother flipping Toad. Where’s Yoshi? Ah, man’s eternal battle against rigging machine. You only get one chance. Sorry, we see you, Lisa Mar. We took one last walk through the Peace Park for a moment of calm before heading back to the hotel. Oh man, just trying to walk off the 20 plates of sushi we just ate. So, it seems like the hanami vibes are pretty strong in Hiroshima. There’s just so many people still out here. I really wish we had stuff like this at home. I mean, the closest thing I think we have is like tailgating before a Packers game or something like that. Uh, obviously this is a lot less rockus, a lot less crazy, and a lot prettier, but the uh the vibes are more or less the same. Like there were some people out there that we saw when we came this morning and they’re still out there just hanging out with their friends all day. And why wouldn’t you? I mean, look at this. Back to hotel. Such a great find. It even comes with free breakfast. Total win for the budget. First, we had to have a quick huddle about how we’re going to pull off the day trip without going totally broke. And then we figured out a route through the Peace Park onto the tram and on our way to Miaima Island. We’re on our way to the street car and the cherry blossoms are just are just glowing today. There was one thing there that was just so big, so cool. Even the birds are enjoying Hanami. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we got our e SIMs for data on our phones so that we can Google maps it up from Cluke and also those tickets to the Peace Memorial that let us skip the line and our train tickets for tomorrow to bring us to Okayama and our JR passes that we used last week. Okay, what I’m trying to say is that we’ve been using Cluke a lot recently, especially here in Japan and it’s been great. Anyway, they’re today’s sponsor and booking things here can sometimes be pretty tough, especially trains and events. You’re often messing with websites in other languages that just don’t work if you translate them. Odd delivery methods like that one time we had to figure out how to pick up sumo tickets from the world’s most complicated 7-Eleven machine. And the always endless problems with foreign credit cards and Japanese websites. Cluke makes all that easy. And it’s not just in Japan that it’s useful. You can go to this upside down house in Malaysia, I guess, visit a torture chamber in Amsterdam. or even tickets to poo poo land. Make sure to use our code Lisa and Josh when you book most anything to get 10% off or click the link in the description. Thanks again to Cluke for sponsoring today’s video. Looks like we’re here. Let’s get on that ferry. So, everybody says that you have to see Miaima’s floating Tory gate from the water as you get in. And it’s on the right side of the boat, by the way. And you know what? Everybody’s right. The welcoming committee once you land is an extremely hungry one. These cute little dudes are worldclass snack thieves. Deer in all the land. Okay. So, what do you think about me and Jima so far? Oh, I really like it. Absolutely. It’s beautiful, charming, and busy. But that’s an understatement. But other than that, you totally worth it to get this feeling of culture and the beauty of Japan. Yeah. Yeah. And what about that? What about that Tory gate? in there. Oh my gosh, it’s stark. That brilliant guy thought about putting it in the middle of the lake. Just brilliant. That’s unique and beautiful. Let’s come up with a plan to get to the top of this place. Right now we are. Okay. So, I think what we’re going to do is we’re going to take the ropeway up, which I believe is 1,100. And I think you can pay with your IC card. We’re going to find out. And then walk all the way back down past all the temples and stuff and then finish up back down here. That should save us like an hour, hour and a half of walking straight up that hill, which we have done and it’s a nice hike. But you can check out the video here. But I think the parents are feeling more like the Phoenix route. Yeah. Ice cream. Okay. Maybe a quick snack stop before a big journey all the way up. Who wants some? This guy definitely does. Yes. Cheers. Did you get the potato one? Uh, okonomyaki one. How’s the nanner? Very good. Sort of healthy. Oh, look at Lisa’s pleased face over there. What’ you get? I got two grilled oyster. How much was that? 600 yen. He’s coming. How is it? Of course, our hands are all Hey, listen here, guy. Hey, listen here, guy. As you might have guessed, picking up snacks also means picking up some adorable attention. Right, snacks defended. It was time to conquer Mount Sen. So, we’re trying to figure out if we’re over budget or not. So, add 76. 76 plus 2050 at 12 to $15 for the two of us to go up. So, I think we’re good. Yeah, I think we’re still on target for $125. Uh we’re we’re close, but I don’t think we’re going to go over today, maybe tomorrow. After a brief intense budget huddle, decided our knees were worth the investment. Okay. Okay, fine. Thank you very much. Now we got to go back again. The ride up was a glorious, beautiful, guilt-free panorama of the island. Every yen we spent felt like a yen saved on future knee replacement surgery. It’s recording videography. Cinema cinema. Cinema. It’s not recording. What are you doing? It is recording. A beautiful 10 minutes later and we were here the top of the island. To celebrate our difficult and tiring ascent with the cable car, we picked up some ice cream. Ice cream breakers. day. Hey, after that nice little ice cream bake, our journey continues to the summit of Mount Misen. It’s so pretty. And we didn’t have to do that much work to get up here. But someone’s looking for sticks. The search for the neverending best stick. We already got the best one. I think it will be That’s a big stick you’ve got there. So, right, this water here has been boiling forever, over a thousand years, and it supposedly has healing effects. And also, it’s so smoky in here. Get me out of here. To our journey. Almost to the top. What do you got going on there? Oh, that’s nice. Some panoramics. What do you think? It’s awesome. Well worth it. Well worth the hike. The cable car had delivered us to the heavens. Getting back down, however, was a totally different story. It turns out gravity, while reliable, is also a totally cruel mistress. The way down is tough and long. So, are you filming yourselves walking down? Oh, you betcha, Mom. I don’t know what’s going on. Okay, I’ll just grab the camera. So, Oh, keep going. I’ll I’ll let you get to the bottom, then I’ll grab it. We have a cameraman. Wow. Miaima saw our struggle and knew we needed a spirit guide to help us continue. And on Q. Hi, friend. I’m not entirely sure what his qualifications were other than an uncanny ability to look like he knew exactly where not to step and making this noise. We decided to trust him mostly. This is Daiso, a sprawling complex of peace, prayers, bells, and all these spinny things. By now, the tide had gone out and the once floating Tory gate was fully exposed in all its glory. We picked up a few snacks from the best restaurant in town. I mean, gourmet it was not, but the views were just right. I of course continued spreading the good word of Lawson’s Kurag Red with the family. Try the greatest chicken product in Japan. We settled in for lunch and just when we thought we were safe, As long as he doesn’t get close, she doesn’t get close. I know what you’re doing. Don’t think that I don’t see you. Yep. Everybody knows your game. Yep. I see you side eyeing us. And then it was time to catch a ride on the ferry to the train back to Hiroshima. Man, what a great day. Let’s see what tonight brings. Oh, Lisa, no. No thrift shopping. So cute. Oh, what’s this place with only literally three things on the menu? It’s got to be good. Can I get rice ball one? So, what’d you get? Same thing you got. It’s okay to slurp. This is like one truly one of the best ramen I feel like we’ve ever had. The broth is so so good. So so rich in flavor. And this place is so simple. I love it. 700 yen for this entire book. I’m so happy we didn’t have to make any decisions. You want to add anything to this? They say do one thing and do it good. This place does one thing and you do it good. You know what we hadn’t seen yet? The castle. It’s been an incredible couple of days here, but our cherry blossom pilgrimage isn’t done yet. Tomorrow. Hello already. Okay. 45 minutes later on the Shinkansen. Stuff all locked up. Time to go explore Okyama. So, right, when you think of Okay, you might I mean, well, honestly, you probably don’t think of anything. It often gets overshadowed by the bigger cities and isn’t really on any list of musto on your two weeks in Japan. We hadn’t heard of this place either, but whispers at our hotel made it sound like a beautiful, slightly off the radar spot with amazing gardens, a massive castle, and crucially, a truly incredible amount of cherry blossoms. Ooh, this is our first time in Okoyama, and I love it here already. It’s so cool. Well, I mean, it has all the amazingness of right metropolitan Japanese cities, but there’s all these really cute street cars and and really fun alleyways that we can’t wait to explore. And then the castle and the gardens and even without the sunshine, it’s particularly beautiful. Also, there’s apparently a local specialty on the way here called Kibidango, and we just had to try. We found this little shop and picked out whichever one they pointed to first. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You too. And she gave us a couple of presents. Okyama seemed to have a quiet confidence just going about its business. We made our way towards Crow Castle along the river. This thing was rebuilt after the war and it stands as a rather stern guardian over the city. Okay, so it looks like it’s either 400 just to get into here or 650 to do here in the garden. So, we should just do like the discount double ticket thing. Uh, this is really cool. It’s It’s 720. It just went up a little bit. Cool. Now you have to use that thing. Oh. Time to try our ki dong there. Also, we got presents. Look at where we are. It’s so pretty. You got to open it. You got to save the gift wrapping. Let’s see where we are. Oh, where are they? So, we’re right in front of Okyama Castle right now, which you can see over there. Over there. It’s so beautiful. Look at that. Oh my. Even more. Which camera? All we know is that it’s marshmallow. It’s just beautiful. It’s a gift. It is. We bought a gift. It’s like an egg. Gentle. one. Beautiful cherry blossoms and sweet treats. Oh, I like that a lot. M. Wait, this is marshmallow. Is it not mochi? It’s real marshmallow. She said it was marshmallow kibidango. So maybe they put marshmallow on the outside. It’s marshmallow with a little There’s something else going on. Is it good? Mhm. The inside maybe is the ki dango. It’s not even as I mean it’s sweet but it’s not even as sweet as it looks. It’s not that sweet. I thought it would be like over the top and it’s sweet. That’s sweet. It’s the perfect Asian dessert. So, as we enjoyed our perfectly not so sweet treat, Lisa had a very important revelation. Okay. So, we didn’t actually have a kiwi dongo. What? It’s called They call it a vine egg. Wow. A legendary longelling sweet that has been loved ever since it took the world by storm in the Maji era. It is a famous confectionary that represents Bakuyama. The outside is a soft, fluffy marshmallow and the inside is filled with egg yolk taste resembling an egg. Oh, I think she was trying to say egg now. Maybe that’s what she was trying to say that there’s marshmallow over or Yeah, the kibidango journey continues. Okay, we’ll fix that oversight later. For now, time to try our hand at Hanami. Check out the cherry blossoms. Oh yeah. Now, we saw everyone else around us having the most elaborate hanami picnics. Ours, however, consisted of some slightly warm beer and sitting on our empty backpacks. But under these blossoms, it felt like a royal banquet. Of course, no beautiful moment in the 21st century is complete without the obligatory social media photo shoot, especially when we desperately need a thumbnail for this video. We should leave the audio on for this cuz then people are just This is how we take thumbs. It’s the worst and it’s super awkward. Here’s our attempted serene contemplation amidst floral beauty. There’s an elephant walking by me behind me. Oh, wow. What is he doing? That’s great. Do you see that? This is really nice. Yes. But look at this view. Okay, that’s enough. Yep, we did it. But silly photo shoots aside, this was it. Hanami quest spectacularly achieved. You can see the castle. Oh no. Do we got to retake thumbnails now? No. I never thought that I would say this about a botanical gardens, but I feel like you could truly spend an entire day just here. There’s so many different spaces. People are hanging out, picnicking, hanamiing, having lunch, walking around the gardens, just sitting and reflecting. It’s such an incredible, beautiful space and it’s so big and you can learn so much about the history of Okyama here. Time to walk our way back to the station and find some lunch. So, we stopped for a quick huddle to figure out what to eat and really really figure out. We got like $15 each. Like 15 for us and 15 for you. What do you guys want to do for lunch? Okay. Do you see what I’m dealing with here, guys? Do you see Do you see what I got to put up with? Do you see how hard it is to make a decision out of here? You see this? What are we feeling? Cuz we had sushi chicken. We haven’t had fried chicken. And I have I’ve heard that they have good fried chicken in Japan. Is that correct? Fried chicken. All right. Then that’s that would be of interest. I also heard peaches are a thing here. Oh yeah, for sure. Really? Oh, there is also some seafood grills. Oh, so many options. But what I’m hearing is correct. Let’s go. You thought we were going to leave you. Nah, there’s supposed to be 80% chance of rain today, but but I carried my umbrella, so it’s not going to rain. That’s how it always works. Is it because it’s the land of sunshine? Oh, it’s because it’s a land of sunshine. We’re just making our way back to the train station along this beautiful canal walk and I’m falling in love with Okyama. Look at all the cherry blossoms here and this beautiful walk. It’s so scenic. It’s so quiet. It’s so quaint. Gosh. I mean, just check this out. Oh, yeah. And then we found the perfect compromise. Ready for some meat. This is the best music. Yeah. Thank you very much. You’re still here, man. Thanks for watching all the way to the end of the video. So, did we get the real Kiwi dog competition? I think so. And we couldn’t find any actual raw peaches anywhere, the fruit, but there were a lot of peaches. Awesome. We got to try the kiwi first sticker. And it’s a peach. Maybe it’s peach. I feel a little bit embarrassed that we didn’t actually get the KB dongle from the KB dongle store. We might have blown it the first time. The thing we got was really cool. Look at this little boy, guys. It’s so wiggly. I can do about this. It’s a little dry. Keep it down the best. I’m not sure that I picked the right thing. Thanks so much for watching. We’ll see you in Coobe, which we’re going to arrive in in 14 minutes. And for you, it’ll be about 2 weeks. Bye.

CHERRY. BLOSSOMS.
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