Hiroshima, Japan: Staying with a Japanese family and exploring Miyajima Island
- Esther
- Jan 4, 2019
- 4 min read
Updated: Apr 4, 2020
Our time in Hiroshima has been amazing. We’ve taken lots of trips around the area, tried some delicious new food and seen some unforgettable centuries-old landmarks. Still, the highlight for me has definitely been staying with a Japanese girl called Kaho and her family.
Ben and I reached out to Kaho through Couchsurfing.com; a website which lets you arrange to meet, host and stay with people living in different places. This was our first time using Couchsurfing but it couldn’t have gone any better! We’d got in touch after seeing that Kaho was our age and had just finished an exchange year in England (in Guildford, close to where I live) and she kindly said we could stay with her in Hiroshima for a couple of nights.
We made our way to Hiroshima on the Shinkansen bullet train (which was an experience in itself!) and arrived in the city not long afterwards, where Kaho and her Mum Kaori were waiting to pick us up.
Back at their house, we spent our first night chatting over some home-cooked nabe (a delicious Japanese hotpot dish).
The next day, we took a trip to visit her grandparents in their very traditional Japanese house. The house was really beautiful and the whole family – including Kaho’s cousin, grandparents and family friends – were really friendly and welcoming. The low table we all sat around with our green tea and sweets was also pretty clever because it had a heater under it and a blanket around the edge to keep you warm.
Even though I couldn't understand anything the family were saying most of the time, I still felt really welcome and involved in their conversation. Kaho's cousin Yuki spoke perfect English to us and the two of them helped us out by translating what the others were saying and teaching us a few little Japanese words and phrases too.
After leaving Kaho's grandparents' house, we all drove to Iwakuni; a scenic little city which is kind of off the beaten path for travellers in Japan. We walked along Iwakuni's multi-arched Kintaikyo bridge before taking a cable car up to Iwakuni's hilltop castle, which not only had the best views over Iwakuni but had real Samurai swords and ancient relics inside.
Afterwards, Kaho and her Mum took us to their favourite local restaurant, where we had some delicious teriyaki chicken, onigiri (stuffed rice balls) and udon noodles. I really liked being able to try food at this really authentic Japanese place because it was somewhere we'd probably never have found by ourselves.
In the evening, we went grocery shopping and then made sushi together back at the house. Making sushi was actually a lot easier than I'd thought it would be and it tasted incredible! Kaho and her Mum had even bought non-seafood ingredients so I could make some delicious chicken and avocado rolls.
Kaho and her Mum were so generous to us during our time with them, and staying with a local family here has added a lot to our time in Japan. It's been great to have the chance to make friends with locals in different parts of the world.
A trip to Miyajima Island
After saying goodbye and leaving Kaho’s house the next morning, Ben and I took the ferry to the nearby Miyajima Island to see the Itsukushima floating shrine; a small but beautiful shinto shrine in the middle of the water.
There were also lots of deer wandering around the island, who were just as friendly and cute as they had been in Nara.
On Miyajima Island, we also took a walk up to Daisho-In temple, which was surrounded by hundreds of little smiling statues which people had come and knitted tiny wool hats for. Apparently they represented the Japanese guardian deity of children, which explains why they were all so sweet and had obviously been given so much love.
Exploring Hiroshima city
Back in Hiroshima city, we went for lunch at the Okonomi-mura in Hiroshima; a 'food theme park' in the centre which has a whole few floors dedicated to serving different types of Hiroshima's famous okonomiyaki dish.
Okonomiyaki (which is like a kind of noodle-based pancake) is delicious, and I’ve definitely added it to my list of Japanese foods that I need to try and find back home!
Afterwards, we paid a visit to Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Museum to learn more about the atomic bomb that ruined the city in 1945. This was obviously a really sad place that made you think about the horror of war weapons (and war in general), but I'm glad we saw it while we were here.
We're now heading to Kobe for the night before we reach our last stop in Japan; Osaka. I'm still loving being in Japan as much as when we first arrived and I'm really trying to make the most of it before we have to leave. The only problem is the days keep going by so quickly!
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