Food

So i have been in Utsunomiya for the last 2 days..well actually got in last night and leave monday. anyways took a train from Mito to get here, about 2 hrs it took. We are in Tochogi prefecture...i think i got that right..yeah so Erinn has a friend here phil, who asked us to come and stay with promises of a 70`s party, and some sightseeing. So as i want to experience as much of japan as possible we took him up on that offer. So, we arrived, dumped my super heavy suitcase at phils and headed to the party.

Was quite funny, lots of afro`s, seventies music on a record player, and lots of really nice, interesting people from all different places. america, canada, aus (me) a brittish guy, french, japanese...ummm im sure there was more too. But was quite good. everyone mingled and chatted and drank alot of martinis. i stuck to some johnnie red and coke, and only a few, so i was a little toasty but pretty good. and im glad i did, some people were not feeling so good the next day, but i was in tip top shape. so the party raged on, we left at 3am, managed to do something that is obviously universal, the 24hr maccas beer munchie run! yep, but best thing is, the maccas is soooo much better. still junk of course, but alot better than oz for sure. so home to bed then we slept in a little and then dragged ourselves out of bed to head to dennys for breakfast»lunch. After that, one of the other peppy employees who has a car, offered to drive us to Nikko.

So we piled in, 5 of us into this little honda and headed off to see Nikko. We stopped on the way to get some nice photos of the mountain there that is volcanic and the lake at the base of it.

After that we moved up further heading to see a really good waterfall, but along the way we got distracted by some monkeys and stopped to have a look. they were so cute. 2 adults and 1 baby. he was so cheeky, running and jumping and playing. but someone got too close to the adults and one screeched at us and beared its fangs, so we all jumped back in unison about 10 feet, and watched froma distance. i got a few good photos i think.

We then headed up to the waterfall, i really cant remember the names of the places, but its in Nikko and i have photos of some of the signs to jog my memory later. But this waterfall was soooo beautiful, was really calming. At the waterfall there is a shop that sells grasshoppers, and we decide to try some, so they are coated in some malases type stuff and i did it! photo evidence to prove too!

After we washed down the grasshopper with lots of water it was off to a temple.

on the way we stopped at a big red bridge. It has some historical importance, something to do with a young guy on one side a young girl on the other and some raging water in between...yeah i know im not giving you much here, but really it wasnt the history that made it awesome, it was how cool it looks, and how tranqual the clear clear water was running beneath it. Besides, i cant do everything for you, you gotta do some things urself. try wiki, or google nikko

So we wandered around the grounds of the temple, it was really cool. Ok i got my guidebook handy, ill do some of your homework for you..it was....Toshu-go Shrine. Coolest part was the pagoda, i took photos. ill add them all soon. The pagoda is 5 stories high and ech storie represents an element...so earth, fire, wind water, and heaven...with these powers combined...ooh sorry flashback..ok so they go up in ascending order..heaven at the top..but anyways, would be cool to live in!!!! Most of the actual bulidings were closed, but we could see the outside and that was cool enough for me.

Oh and i just found out, its Shinko bridge over Daiya river!! Apparently the dud originally crossed the river on the back of two giant serpants, bridge seems a much smarter and safer way to me!Thats enough facts for now.<

We headed home cramped in this micro mini honda, and headed to a korean bbq for dinner. was really quite delicious. Then home to phils place and i watched a movie on my laptop then it was sleep time.

This morning phil is making crepes, then this arvo its off to tokyo to check into my hotel. Disneland tomorow! Rock!

Ill add pictures real soon. promise, there is a great grashopper eating sequence i know you will all love!

sayaonara for now...

bella

p.s apologies for grammer and spelling errors...this laptop im using is german, i cant find half the puncuation marks i need and i have limited time and was too lazy to capitolise where capitals are required. ill do better next time..promise...

So todays entry is fairly food related also.
After our night at the Izakaya last night we had another sleep in. So we got up at around midday and got ready to go back to the okonomiyaki place for lunch with some more of Erins friends. this lady worked for Peppy also and she brought her teenage daughter along.

We had okonomiayaki again, this time a cheese one with mochi in it, and a meat one, with beef, bacon, chicken in it. Both were sooo good. But this time we also had "Monja" for a full description check this site:

http://www.sakuratei.co.jp/en/monja-yaki.html

But briefly, it was simular to the okono at the start except instead of cooking it into a pancake it stays kinda runny and gooey and u eat it off the grill with a timy metal spatuala....confused...yeah maybe check the link above for a better idea. Its hard to describe. It is however very yummy. We had a meat one here too.

After our very filling meal, we decided on desert too. Erinn and i just had icecream altho it was of course presented beautifully. The young girl got some sort of parfait..and it was beautifully decorated with fruit, but she didnt eat it. She said "i dont like fruit" so she ate only the icecream. She was really funny. she has 4 keitai (mobile phones), she says incase the battery dies on one people can still contact her. Her english was not too bad for a 16 year old.

After lunch we said goodbye, Erinn and i headed for Mito station. She was off to work and i needed to check back at the Livin as i saw some good, flat, slip on shoes there the day before and they were also on sale. Ivve learnt very quickly that slip on shoes are much more convinient than my boots! so i headed of there. I was also on a mission to find myself a few warmer clothes as i underestamated the weather when i was packing. I expected slightly warmer. silly aussie i am. i also need a suit coat because i again didnt pack a warm business coat and i need ot have business ttire for several of my training days.

so off i went and it was quite succsessful. i found the jacket for 3000 yen (approx $50) and its a really good jacket, so i was stoked with that. then i found the slip on flat shoes, on sale 500 yen ($8 approx) i then went to another department store calle muai or something like that but its also called 1010. There was a Gap in there (the store "gap") and i got 2 jumper/tops for 900 yen each. so i was overall pretty happy with my shopping considering there was so much more i wanted that cost alot of money, but i only stuck to what i need.

On the walk home i noticed they had hung lanterns in the cherry trees ready for celebrations.

So im back home now. showered and warm, waiting for Erinn to see what we might have for dinner. id say we might stay in tonight, maybe chuck on a movie. tommorow we are off for a Hanami festival (a cherry blossom festival) in a neighbouring town. i cant remember the name, but ill be sure to add an entry afterwards with all the pics and locations etc.

And in a post soon ill put info about my new home town. but for now im off for a snack and a whiskey....mmmmm

Bella

So we slept in a little the next morning, as we had stayed up late the night before chatting and catching up.

We pottered around the apartment until about 1pm and then we were off to lunch with nanasan (sp) one of erinns colleagues. We ended up choosing an okonomiyaki restraunt as the italian place which has a really good value lunch deal was very busy.

It was really cool, first you choose which mix you want, we chose a seafood one, and a pizza one, then they bring u the batter, so its all the ingriedients in a bowl and u mix it up,

then u oil ur hot plate, which is pretty much ur whole table. Then you pour it on and cook one side, flip it, and cook the other. When its done u can put stuff on top. we added seaweed shreded, fish flake,mayo and all sorts of special sauces before chopping it up and eating it! yum

After lunch i did a little exploring and checked out a department store called excel which had about 7 levels of sho[ping heaven. I retstrained myslef tho, and i didnt buy anything.

Then it was off home to wait for erinn and we had a dinner at home, and we baked cookies. yum!

Then it was off to bed.

For those interested...here is a better description than mine on okinomiyaki

http://www.japan-guide.com/r/e100.html