Breakfast again at Mitsui Garden – same ol’ same ol’ here. We tried the cheese sauce variation on the benedict, which was a bit too rich for my tastes. Just a quick breakfast as it was a travel day to Onomichi. As expected, we avoided the big golden week crowds. At Tokyo Station to catch our shinkansen, Lu found a great ebiken place, where she got tuna and ro, and I got a nigiri plate. Both were fantastic, and the train was a Nozomi, the fastest service, so we got to enjoy stellar speeds across Japan. After a transfer in Okayama, and then a quick taxi ride, we arrived at our AirBnB in Onomichi.

A stark contrast to the regal Mitsui Gardens, in Onomichi we stayed in a very cozy and simple apartment, if a bit lived in feeling. The whole city in fact felt a bit old, and we learned that there was an effort to revitalize the city, by revamping all the abandoned family homes into new shops. The result was a dichotomy of old and new, hip fancy coffee houses next to traditional old style izakayas.

It was already raining once we arrived, but upon hearing the sound of music, and realizing there was a culture event going on, we decided to venture out. We stuck mostly to the covered shopping arcade that spans most of the city, but did brave the rain to go to a well rated ramen shop, Ichibankan.

Onomichi is known for their specialized ramen: served piping hot with a shoyu base, flat noodles, small fish and free floating chunks of lard to enrich the broth, and this shop had a kakuni special, square sliced and simmered pork belly. Possibly the best ramen I’ve ever had, but of course the competition is fierce, and there is certainly some bias for ramen in the rain!

We learned that Onomichi closes early, and just managed to nab some local beer and specialty lemon cookies for dessert from the shop.

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