Prince Hotel Hiroshima

For Valentine's Day weekend Joel and I decided to spend the night in a hotel on a small island off the coast of Hiroshima. We stayed on the 16th floor of The Grand Prince Hotel - we had a great view of the Seto Inland Sea from our room. We actually got upgraded to the King-size room when we checked-in Friday afternoon - the room was decked out with many great amenities but as you can see the room was still a bit narrow. Oh, and there was a wedding going on while we were there, so we got to see a lot of kimono clad folks in the lobby. They are so adorable!!

There were a number of great restaurants in the hotel available of us to try but we wanted an authentic experience for dinner so we opted for the traditional Japanese Kaiseki-sytle dinner, which is a multi-course meal that is typically served at banquets. The food they brought out was so delicious and unique - definitely a once in a lifetime meal! For lunch the following day we had Hiroshima-style Okonomiyaki - which is referred to as a Japanese pancake but consists of a thin crepe, cabbage, fried egg, green onions and seafood topped with a barbeque sauce. If you recall our first post about Hiro, we had some then as well. :)

I am SO proud of Joel! He navigated through a Japanese TV menu and was able to connect our laptop to the TV so we could watch a "Game of Thrones" marathon... not gonna lie though. I would have been happy to watch Japanese TV all day. It's SO hilarious!!!

King size bed - low to the ground (they don't use box springs) - HARD mattress but super comfy pillows

Hard to tell here, but the bathroom was quite small. Fancy toilet though!

The view out our window

Miyajima is one of those islands

Looking straight down out of our window

Really not sure what was going on here... couldn't figure out what they were doing for the life of me

Before dinner, we went to the very top floor (a really sweet lounge) for cocktails. I ordered a Kamikazee and Joel ordered something... not sure what, but it was on the vodka menu. The server kinda giggled when he ordered it so we were expecting a really girly drink, LOL. Turns out it was sweet but not overly so. Still don't know what it was. :)

With dinner, we ordered our first Sake since we've been here! I know, pathetic right? We've been living in Japan for almost 6 months and this was our first time getting Sake?? Crazy! Anyhoo, it was DE-LI-CIOUS. Best thing ever and it paired really well with all of our food.

OK, so remember how this was a traditional Japanese style meal?? That means we each had about 8 or 9 courses! Granted the portions are small, but wow, the variety was amazing! This is my first course - tofu with a ginger sauce and a fresh oyster.

Joel's first course - sea urchin on tofu!

These tell you what we ordered... I really wish we could read it because we don't remember what everything was now because there was SO MUCH of it!!

My sashimi course - very fresh, raw fish of all types

Joel's sashimi course

They brought a soup out for Joel that had a flame underneath to keep it warm. When they realized he was ready to eat it, they ran over and cracked an egg into the soup which cooked almost immediately and made a great first bite!

My soup course - the flavors on everything were SO fresh

We are masters with chopsticks now :)

Joel's first bite of soup complete with egg

My next course was cheesy seafood and mushrooms in a parchment wrap. I did eat ONE mushroom and gave the rest to Joel. Ick. Mushrooms are a fungus :-p

Joel's next course was a cheesy conch. We tried the blue stuff underneath, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't meant to be edible. It totally tasted like sand, whoops!

Joel got another soup course!! I'm pretty sure it was miso of some sort.

This is a squid ink pasta. It was actually a cold dish. Thankfully, it didn't turn my mouth black as some are known to do.

Joel's completed conch

My tempura course. Very, very good. It didn't come with a dipping sauce, rather the freshly squeezed lemon and dry rub (a salt blend) made a perfect topping.

Joel's tempura course - I was SO jealous! I love soft shelled crab!!! And this was probably the BEST one I've ever tasted! Too bad Joel ate most of it... I guess it WAS his...

Another course for Joel...

Another course for me, and it included another soup and fresh oysters on flavored rice!

Joel and I both received the same dessert... super fresh and delicious fruit. Good idea on their part because we were SO stuffed at this point, we wouldn't have been able to have anything rich or filling at all!

We decided to go for a walk the next morning and discovered there was a hiking trail all around the island! We walked at least a mile and it was still going so we turned around after a bit, but it was truly beautiful and super sunny weather. The temp was probably in the upper 40's with a good breeze since we were right on the water.

There were all sorts of wild cats! They loved Joel... I think they figured he was more likely to have food scraps on him.

We hiked up in the woods for a quick bit too... sorry the picture quality isn't so hot... our camera died halfway through the meal the night prior so some of the food and all the pics from the next day were taken with my iPhone and just aren't as good.

More of the wooded trail...

Okonomiyaki was a wonderful end to our hike. This is seriously an awesome dish!

Here's a typical Okonomiyaki menu. Thankfully, they had one in English.

The finished product, yummy!

Blogger is being weird, so here is a belated picture of the walkway along the island. It was never ending, I swear!

Around another bend and another bend and another bend, it never ends...

Bonus pic - I got cold in the room the night before but I couldn't change because we hadn't gone to dinner yet, so I wore PJ pants with my dress. Joel thought it was funny :-p

Our New Computer Desk

We were invited to a furniture auction hosted by the Marine Officer's Wives Club where various Japanese antique and furniture vendors were brought in to sell their wares. There were many smaller items sold in a silent auction and the larger items were auctioned off live. We were meaning to buy a computer desk for our office room at home - so we had our eye out for what was available at the auction. We were out bid during the silent auction on a desk we really liked - but alas it all worked out because we were able to get this very unique piece during the live auction!

This computer desk was refurbished and converted In Japan from an over 100 year old cabinet that originally came from China. The chair has three small drawers on the back of it and rolls out to unveil the keyboard. It even came with a certificate of authenticity. We also got the shaggy carpet to put under the desk at the auction.

Sushi-making Class

The Marine and Family Team Building group put on a Sushi-making class last week that Kirk and I were able to go to together since it was over her lunch break. They showed us how to make three different types of sushi:

• Korean roll (toasted nori seaweed paper on outside with tuna and siracha chilli sauce)
• California roll (rice on outside of the seaweed paper with artificial crab, avocado, cucumber, and mayonnaise topped with sesame seeds)
• Chirasi Sushi (aka "Garnished Sushi" in which you put egg, shrimp, cucumber and mushrooms in a pot with sushi rice and mix it together - basically I call it "Lazy Man's Sushi").

Unfortunately we didn't get any pictures of the table where they had all the ingredients spread out, but here are some pictures of the final product, or what was left of it after I ate most of the rolls I made

Joel's plate.

Kirk's plate.

Here are some more Sushi facts that we learned through the class:

Garnished Sushi (Chirasi sushi):  Various raw fish on top of sushi rice
Nigiri Sushi: Vinegar-ed rice covered with a raw or cooked topping
Sushi Roll (Maki zushi): Rolled in a bamboo mat called a "Makisu"

Sushi Pockets (Inari zushi): Sushi rice in deep-fried tofu pockets
Hand-rolled Sushi (Temaki-zushi): A temaki is rolled by hand

O-toro=Tuna belly
Maguro=Tuna
Hirame=Halibut
Hamachi=Yellowtail
Suzuki=Sea bass
Sake=Salmon
Ika=Squid
Ikura=Salmon roe
Tamago=Omelette
Tako=Octopus
Wasabi=Spicy Japanese horseradish
Gari=vinegar-ed ginger

Itadakimasu=I receive this meal with thanks
Gochisosamadesita= Thank you very much for the delicious food

Two Restaurants in Iwakuni (Primavera & G.Labo)

So we can finally cross off our list two of Iwakuni's most popular restaurants: Primavera and G.Labo.

We tried out Primavera, a Japanese/Italian fusion restaurant with our friends Ted and Chisato.

An appetizer of eggplant, cheese and tomato sauce

A delicious corn chowder (you can actually buy this soup in cans in most vending machines - it's really cool because the Japanese vending machines have hot rows and chilled rows all in the same unit!)

I ordered a smoked salmon panini with olives and Italian dressing

Kirk ordered a chicken and eggplant entree. The sauce was to die for (she actually dipped her finger in it for a taste a couple times, so rude!). The one thing Kirk doesn't like though is that they leave all the fat on the chicken (we rarely see chicken breast options at restaurants). We do like dark meat, but it can be difficult to eat sometimes due to all the fat.

Kirk got Primavera's specialty cappuccino, which featured the barista's artistic abilities! She didn't want to drink it because it was "so cute".

We tested out the G.Labo Restaurant with Nick and Neda, and Christy and Sergio, which is located on the "Yellow Brick Road" in downtown Iwakuni.

The best thing about G.Labo is their garlic bread! Each couple ordered one loaf and we scarfed them all down quickly. Sergio and I discovered the best part is actually the crispy garlic butt on the bottom that no one thinks to eat - yum!

Kirk got a chicken appetizer dish with chipotle mayo on a fried pasta bed. She wanted me to add, "Look at all that icky fat!"

I got the Duck and Mushroom pasta - with a garlic oil dressing.

A satisfied group after a great meal!