Stuff I've seen Kanazawa & Hiroshima

I sorted of stopped updating the blog during the trip, and never picked it back up.
Here we are after a hiatus of some 6 months or more, so apologies if I only have a vague recollection of exactly what I was doing or why I took any particular shot.

We arrive in Kanazawa next. It was a relatively short stay and I think I'd strained my leg or knee or something, so we didn't get a huge amount done.

We stopped by Omicho market on the way to garden.

The garden was good to see in proper autumn colors.

I'll add a bigger set of photos to the generic Garden post for those who like that sort of thing.

After that it was off to Hiroshima, where we had booked in a slot for the Mazda museum tour.
We ended up missing a train and running late so we had to catch a taxi to the museum.

The nice tour lady shows us the 3 wheel "truck" (aka an auto-rickshaw, basically a motorcycle with a tray on the back) that was the first vehicle Mazda made (they were a cork factory for the first decade).

There were various racing cars that they have built.

The 787B which was the first Japanese car to win the 24 hours of LeMans 

This was a limited edition model they only produced 1000 of in this color.

There were some sections about their safety features

As well as some wanky modern art by the people that design the cars.

The clay prototype that is built before they start making actual cars.

Some concept cars that don't really exist

There was a showroom where you could sit in some vehicles that are generally available.

There was a gift shop with a lot of model cars. I bought a metacil pencil (a metal bodied pencil with a graphite tip that can draw a 16km long line before it needs replacing) that is coated with the Mazda "Soul Red" paint.

We went and visited the bomb site

the children's peace memorial

and the main peace memorial

 

Stuff I've eaten - Kyoto & Fukui

Kyoto station Sushi

Red bean bun

lemon cake

Red bean and mochi pancake

pumpkin donut

old fashioned dutch apple donut

a latte

Non starbucks breakfast hot dog

Sake tasting at Nijo

Chicken Karaage

flavored mochi, chestnut and sweet potato

One of the women at the language group had spent the morning at a class learning how to make mochi that looked like flowers.

Dinner with the language group at a restaurant that did a set meal with differing main portion.

Mel had fried chicken.

Frozen grape mochi

Marshmallow rabbit

rice crackers

the usual 7-11 snacks

pikachu donut

Mister Donut has a lot to answer for.

Autumn Ekiben

lemon cake

Cold Soba noodles done Fukui style at the dinosaur museum

A dinosaur excavation cake.
The test tubes represent things that cause erosion, water, air, plants, stone.
You put them on the cake and eat it. There is no dinosaur inside the cake.
This is because you ate the cake with a spoon and didn't delicately brush away the cake crumb by crumb, thus destroying the delicate fossil inside.

Mel is fond of a mobile game where you pour colored liquids in test tubes on top of each other, kind of like you're playing solitaire.

Dinner assembled from a few shops in a department store.

Including this biscoff dessert

And these three angry puddings.
Chestnut, Persimmon, and firm.

complimentary fridge cake from Dormy Inn

Starbucks breakfast

A bun with mushroom in it.

Ham and Edamame black sesame seed bun

"The Latte"
Filled with caramel - sugary nonsense.

Kyoto lemonade and crab ekiben

crab!