Shichi-Go-San

Posted on 2014/11/16 07:41:35 (November 2014).

[Tuesday 11th November 2014]
Today was our last day in Hiroshima of this trip. Towards the end of the morning we ventured out to the big shopping mall near where Chie's parents live, mainly so the family could buy Christmas presents for Erika to take back to the UK with us. Erika rather enjoyed looking at all the toys in Toys R Us / Babies R Us. We had lunch in one of the restaurants in the mall too.

Later on in the afternoon we headed out again, as Chie wanted to take some family portraits for Shichi-Go-San (although I think we were actually a year early - it's meant to be when Erika is three years old). We'd originally considered going to a professional photographer for this, but hadn't really got our act together (plus I'd also had an uncharacteristic bout of stinginess and didn't want to pay for something we could do reasonably well ourselves for free). So we got a little bit dressed up, and went to the local park to snap away amidst the autumn leaves. They're obviously not like the sorts of pictures a professional photographer would take, but I think we got some really nice shots regardless - I particularly like this one.

After that we headed to Kura Sushi for a farewell dinner. It had always been the tradition when visiting Hiroshima that we go to Sushi Tei, the family's favourite sushi place - and often on the last night in Hiroshima. Although we had been there once or twice since Erika was born, it's not particularly child friendly, and in the week in particular there can be quite a lot of people smoking so it's not really a great environment for her. So on the past few trips we'd started going to this kaiten (converyor belt) sushi place which seems a lot more family oriented. The conveyor belt is already quite fun for Erika - particularly with the second high speed belt used for things made to order - but in addition there's a chute you drop your used plates down, and every 5 plates you have a chance of winning a toy from a machine above the table. The booths also just fit 6 people, which was perfect for us (Yuka joined us too). So that was all round quite a jolly end to this stay in Hiroshima.

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