1st Day in Japan: Sake Museum (of course!)

Although the time difference really isn't that much between Hawaii & Japan, (Hawaii is so far behind us that it's a day behind us and only 5 hrs different in daytime) when Mom & Dad arrived at 8pm our time it felt like 1am to them. So the plan was to take it easy on Friday and let them try to adjust. What is it they say...best laid plans...?
Let me preface this whole story by saying first that Rex & I travel solely by foot, bike and train. We've never set foot on a bus and have only taken a taxi once from the train station coming home from Hong Kong (oh yeah, and once with Jessica trying to get to the Imperial Palace). Anyway, we really have no way to call a taxi even though I have their ph# programmed into my cell ph - what exactly would I say? "Please come to..." oh, I forgot Japanese cities don't have addresses - and I don't speak Japanense!

So, we set out in the morning to try to hail a taxi on the street and go downtown to the Sake Museum. Well, that didn't work and we ended up walking all the way to the Hanshin Train station (a good mile or two) where there was a line of taxis waiting. Along the walk I did have a chance to show off some of the places of interest to our daily Japanese life: our neighborhood grocery store, Kansai Super, the bank where I routinely drain Rex's bank acct even though I'm not actually signed on the account, the PO where I buy Money Orders to mail to the US, and my Tofu man.

At the Sake Museum we were given a souvenir bottle of Sake along with our tickets in, so we were off to a great start. I have to say this was one of the nicest museums I've been to in Japan, along with the Hiroshima memorial. It seems here, that Museums are either great or a complete disappointment. Lucky for us this one was great. There were displays of the various stages in the process of making Sake as well as a bit of history - and the signs even had English translation! Nishinomiya is known for it's Sake production and a large percentage of Japanese Sake is made here.

About halfway through we came to a room full of pictures and ruins from the prior Sake museum as we came to learn, it had been completely destroyed in the Great Hanshin Earthquake of '95. So that's why it was now so nice - it had been recently completely re-built. Once through the museum we went across the street to an Art Museum that had Sakura inspired items on display. Then we walked a short distance to the Nishinomiya Jinja Shrine - our local Shinto Shrine. The grounds are nice and the temple simple, but elegant. It is a working Shrine and while we were there we were able to watch the priests and other workers go through the days end rituals.

Luckily the Hanshin train station is close to the Shrine and after a short walk and a bit of shopping at the train station, we we able to get another taxi to take us home at just about the same time Rex was getting home from school. Taco's for dinner, made with some of the pinto beans brought from Hawaii by my parents, and it was a perfect end to the 'a bit more tiring than planned' first day.