Sakura

Sakura, the cherry blossom tree, is everywhere in Japan. The country seems to revolve around blooming season in the spring.

The season begins in Okinawa in January and ends in Hokkaido in late April or early May. Scott actually planned this trip around the sakura season. We lucked out for most of the trip. The blossoms were gorgeous in Kyoto, Nara, Takasaki, and Tokyo. Niigata and Aizu-Wakamatsu were unusually cold, so the blossom season had not yet begun even though it was mid-April.

The Japanese have a festival revolving around sakura, Hanami. Each year, people set down tarps in parks full of sakura and have picnics amongst the trees. School groups and businesses, as well as families, have official outings for hanami. There are apparently some folk songs and dances designed for hanami, but most people are just interested in eating and drinking.

Tarps set up for hanami

Sakura in Byodo-In and Nara:

Sakura in Takasaki:

Sakura just blooming in Aizu-Wakmatsu:

Osaka-jo, Daimaru, and Universal Studios

Our second full day in Japan was spent in Osaka.

The first stop for the day was Osaka-jo Castle. It was beautiful. The castle is five stories and on outside and eight stories on the inside. It was built on a large pile over stones, overlooking a moat. The tower was first built around 1600. It was destroyed in 1868, in the wake of the civil war, and rebuilt in 1928. The 1945 bombings destroyed everything but the stones. It wasn't fully restored until the mid-1990s. The grounds cover about 15 acres and are a popular place to visit. The castle is surrounded by Sakura - 4,500 trees on the grounds. There was lots of people there for hanami.

The gate

The outer wall

Bridge to the castle

Moat

Castle

We paid to go inside the castle; it was somewhat disappointing. There were a few exhibits of Samurai outfits and the history of Toyotoshimi but no architecture of the castle. There probably isn't much architecture to speak of. The best part of the castle was the view at the top.

Daimaru

We next went to the Osaka shopping district. We spent our entire at Daimaru, a large department store. The store was pretty much the same as any other store, but I enjoyed looking at it. A lot of the clothes looked very interesting but many styles would look ridiculous outside of Japan. The shirts I liked best were associated with a label called "Titty." I don't think I could bring myself to wear it.

We ate lunch at one of the restaurants on the top floor of Daimaru.

After lunch we went downstairs to look at the food area of Daimaru. It was arranged like a grocery store - a very expensive grocery store. The biggest area seemed to be devoted to fish. I enjoyed looking at the produce. A single, large carrot was prettily wrapped and selling for more than $1.50. There were also 2 mangoes selling for $150! They were special mangoes. There was lots of breads, sweets, and meat. We had tasty samples of fish cakes, lemongrass and hibiscus teas, and a bean cake as rich as cheesecake.

Red bean muffins. The attendant scolded me for taking this photo. Guess she thought these were "special" muffins.

$150 for two mangos!!!!

Over $1.50 for one carrot

There was fish everywhere

Japanese Parmesan cheese

After Daimaru, there wasn't much else that seemed interesting in the shopping district so we headed back to Universal City. We stopped by Seattle's best coffee, where I had a tasty hot chocolate (especially tasty since I didn't know how to ask them to leave off the whipped cream or ask for skim milk).

Universal Studios

Universal Studios in Japan is located in "Universal City" just outside of Osaka. It wasn't exactly on our list of places to go in Japan (I would much prefer to go to Tokyo Disneyland) but Fuminori was really excited about going. And visiting foreigners provided the perfect excuse for an outing to the amusement park.

Since we spent the morning visiting Osaka, we didn't enter the park until 3 PM. By that time, the tickets were half price, but it was still really expensive. We met up with some friends of Fuminori, one of whom Scott knew from the University of Utah. Both couples were Japanese men who'd married Spanish women. Faviola grew up in Mexico City and was an English teacher in Japan. She had a 6 year old daughter (Kimi) who spoke Japanese, English, and Spanish. The other woman was from the Canary Islands in Spain but was of Taiwanese descent. Both spoke excellent English and were very nice. I spent much of the evening with them since I didn't want to ride on roller coasters with Scott.

Land of Oz

We all first went to see the show Waterworld. The effects were interesting but I couldn't understand anything.

There were lots of people at the Waterworld show

The "bad guys"

Then I watched Scott get soaked on Jurassic park. I happily volunteered to stay dry and take the pictures.

While Scott and the boys went off in search of roller coasters, the girls and I went to the Jaws ride and then the carousel. It was actually a relief to hear the women speaking Spanish, a language I know well enough to at least get the gist of their conversation. But since they also were fluent in English, it was nice to have people to talk to with whom I could communicate.

We ended the evening by watching the Light Parade. That's always fun.

Lots of Fabulous Japanese Food

Arrival Day - Pre-Bedtime Snacks

We were both a little hungry when we left the airport, but I was more interested in sleeping. We stopped at FamilyMart, a convenience store. I noticed a few interesting things - a single banana wrapped in nice plastic, banana flavored Kit-Kat, and an Oreo candy bar. We bought three onigiri - filled balls of rice wrapped in seaweed. We had toro (fatty tuna) with green onions, tuna, and shrimp with mayonnaise. I thought they were all okay. The toro had the most flavor. We also bought a melon flavored juice and orange juice, neither of which I tried.

Onigiri

Breakfast Day 1

The hotel in Nagoya had a free breakfast buffet. There was lots to choose from. I tasted almost everything: a lukewarm stew with vegetables and tofu; cold noodles with vegetables and pork; a square of sweet egg; a little omelet filled with pork; a delicious piece of fish called sama; fried onion; potato croquette; rice with seaweed broken up over it; and miso soup. I also tried an umeboshi plum; Scott doesn't like them. They're supposed to be very healthy. I didn't like it too much.

L-R: Miso; omelet; sweet egg; umeboshi plum, fish; cold noodles; tofu stew; fried onion; potato croquette; rice

Lunch Day 1

Our first destination in Nara was lunch. The restaurant was in the traditional Japanese style. We walked down a long hall, took off our shoes, and entered a small, private room with benches and a low table. The primary focus, at first, was ensuring that Kanon was fed. Nae brought baby food with her - an aluminum packet of mashed pork and beef with some potatoes in sauce. She put the packed in a bowl of warm water to heat it up and then poured it into a little cup for Kanon. Pretty useful. The baby food smelled like canned cat food. Our food smelled much better.

Our little room at the restaurant

Baby food

I had a bowl of soba, tempura shrimp and veggies, an awful tasting root vegetable in a yellow vinegary sauce, and a bowl of rice. Fuminori had tuna sashimi with a raw egg yolk for dipping. He encouraged me to try one and to break the yolk. It was very good - even with raw egg. I didn't realize the yolk was raw until several days later. Scott had a variety of sashimi, tempura, and an egg custard dish called chawanmushi.

Before a meal, everyone gets an oshiburi, a warm towel to wash your hands

My meal: L-R: Soba; vegetable with vinegary sauce; tempura; dipping sauce for tempura and soba; pickles; rice

Fuminori's sashimi with raw egg

Scott's meal: Sashimi; egg custard; tempura

Snacks Day 1

Just outside the Todai temple, I saw a street vendor selling little cooked balls of mochi, called dango. We each had one. They were soaked in a salty/sweet teriyaki sauce. I liked them well enough. I was expecting something sweeter since that's how I've always had mochi. But it was still good.

We took a taxi back near the train station and met Nae and the others at Mister Donut. Mister Donut is a Japanese institution, celebrating its 40ths anniversary this year. Even though we said we weren't hungry, Fuminori insisted on buying something. We split a chocolate covered pretzel. It was pretty good. I drank a bottle of CC Lemon, the lemon soda I discovered in Taiwan, on the train ride to Osaka.

An pan: Cake filled with red beans - a sample (or sampuru)

Dango - Fried mochi

Mr. Donut chocolate pretzel and C.C. Lemon

Dinner Day 1

Before dinner, we stopped by the Takoyaki museum. Takoyaki is a popular Japanese snack food. It's a ball of fried dough with octopus (tako) inside. We split a basket of takoyaki. It was warm, doughy, and delicious. There's really only a little piece of octopus in there.

We went to the Oriental Diner for dinner. They're known for their curry. Scott ordered hayashi rice. I ordered what Scott thought was beef curry over an omelet and rice. It turned out to be hayashi rice. I took one bite and hated it. Scott thought it tasted great so ended up eating my meal and most of his own. He thought it was funny that I didn't like it - it was probably the most "American" thing on the menu, with a taste reminiscent of boeuf bourginon or bolognese sauce. I ordered a new plate of beef curry with rice. This time I actually got curry and thought it was delicious.

Appetizer of takoyaki

Salad starter - the white scoop is potato salad

Scott's hayashi rice

My hayashi rice over egg and rice

Scott eating both our meals

My beef curry - a significant improvement

Breakfast Day 2 and 3

We met up for breakfast around 8 AM. Fuminori wanted to go to McDonald's. I wanted something a little more unique. We looked at Mos Burger, a Japanese hamburger chain, but they only served hamburgers for breakfast. That didn't sound very good. So we ended up at McDonald's. It was very crowded with Japanese. I had an egg McMuffin, hashbrown, and fake orange juice. I had to admit the familiarity tasted good. The prices didn't - It cost about $7. We ate the same thing the next morning. There wasn't anything else near our hotel.

A familiar food

Morning Snack Day 2

The grounds around Osaka-jo had lots of street vendors - making takoyaki, yakisoba, and more. We bought a gorgeous looking mango that was peeled like a banana. I thought it was very tasty but it wasn't sweet enough for Scott.

The fruit stand - Notice the peeled mango in front

Mango

Lunch Day 2

We ate lunch at Daimaru, a department store in downtown Osaka. The highest floor had lots of different restaurants. Several were supposed to be famous but were far too busy. We ended up at a restaurant called Kushio. It was a fry-your-own-meal restaurant. Each table was equipped with two deep fryers set into the table. To start out, we were given tiny, clear rice wafers that, when put into the fryer, because huge white crackers. Quite tasty. Then the full meal came. There were 8 skewers - with shrimp, fish, pork or beef, green onion, eggplant, kabocha, and a few others. There was a choice of a sweet soy sauce, vinegar, or salt to dip the skewers in once fried. While the skewers were frying we had other things to eat: miso soup, rice with raw (flavorless) tuna, raw egg, and green onion; hijiki salad; cabbage salad with a few tomatoes; and tasty pickles of daikon and purple cucumber. For dessert we had a little scoop of yuzu (citrus) sorbet with a little wafer. It was all delicious.

The little clear rice cracker pre-frying

Fried rice cracker

Scott with his fried rice cracker

Tempura pre-frying: Shrimp, pork, and vegetables

The rest of my meal. L-R: Rice with egg, ground tuna, and seaweed; hijiki (seaweed) salad; dipping sauce; miso; big salad; skemono (pickles)

Me with some fried tempura

Yuzu sorbet

Dinner Day 2

I didn't eat anything at Universal Studios but Fuminori bought an adorable bread shaped like Snoopy. Poor little Kanon - she loved Snoopy, the "wan-wan." Fuminori made a good show out of eating the dog.

Everyone met up for dinner after leaving the park. We tried to go to a place for okonomiyaki (cabbage pancake with various fillings) and another for ramen but all the Japanese places had 30 minute waits. So we ended up at Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. Fuminori was very excited about it. I suppose it's only appropriate to eat at Bubba Gump in Japan since we ate there in Hong Kong. I wanted something vaguely healthy so I had a salmon veggie skillet. It did have veggies but everything was dripping in butter and lots of rice. Healthy it wasn't but tasty it was.

Salmon and veggies with lots of butter

Breakfast Day 3

See McDonald's above

Lunch Day 3

Next we went to a traditional Japanese restaurant called Izu-sen, inside the Daitokuji temple. The restaurant specializes in teppatsu-ryori, a Zen vegetarian cuisine. We had plate after plate of food - 10 bowls/plates in all. We started with mochi and green tea (Fuminori drank ours). Next was a little glass of plum wine plus vegetables in a mayonnaise-like sauce (Fuminori drank all 5 glasses of plum wine; his face started to get red). Other plades included tofu and seaweed and other vegetables; a slimy clear soup with a sakura blossom and some kind of potato; fried tofu ball with a soybean inside; tofu layers, bamboo, and some kind of root; brown rice with bamboo; tempura with dipping sauce; big green onions and pickled purple cucumber; and miso soup.

Our room - notice the low table and tatami mats

Green tea and mochi (covered in soy flour)

Plum wine; cold tofu; vegetables in a mayonnaise sauce

Slimy soup - the little pink thing on top of the potato-like vegetable is a sakura blossom

L-R: Vegetables wrapped in thin tofu; vegetables; fried tofu; fried tofu covered in green sauce; large soybeans

L-R: Brown rice with bamboo; fried tofu with soybean inside; layered tofu; pickled vegetables

Vegetable tempura

Miso

Afternoon Snack Day 3

We stopped by a little shop serving ice cream on our way to Kiyomizudera temple in Kyoto. They were serving black sesame ice cream. Scott and I bought a cone out of curiosity. It was delicious - sweet and nutty.

Black (or actually gray) sesame ice cream

Dinner Day 3

When we arrived in Nagoya, we headed for a kaiten sushi restaurant. Unfortunately, there was a long wait. We put our names down and walked down the road to a ramen restaurant, a well-known place in Nagoya. We ordered gyoza and miso ramen. The ramen was fabulous - definitely not Top-ramen. The soup base typically takes an entire day to make. Apart from the noodles, the soup had half a boiled egg, and fatty pork that melted in your mouth. Scott and I split the ramen so we'd have more room for sushi but I was getting full.

Gyoza

Miso ramen

There was still a 30 minute wait for the sushi restaurant so we sat in Fuminori's car and watched Stars on Ice on the TV on the dashboard. The screen functions as both a TV and a GPS. It seems like a dangerous distraction but it was fun to watch.

We finally got a table at the sushi restaurant. Kaiten sushi has little plates of sushi on conveyer belts that you pull off. If you don't see something you want, you can order it by computer at your table. The cost of the meal is calculated by the number of plates. We tried all sorts of dishes : sweet potato, toro, tako, salmon, whitefish, etc. It was all delicious even though I didn't have room for much.

Kaiten sushi conveyer belt

Sweet potato and salmon (sake)

Whitefish with a warm mayonnaisey sauce
o
Tako (raw octopus)

Breakfast Day 4

In the morning, Nae's mother cooked a delicious breakfast: root vegetables with tofu; an egg slice; a delicious piece of fish; salad with an apple; sesame spinach; tiny cuttlefish; rice; and miso with mussels. She also bought natto for me to try - it's essentially stinky soybeans. I didn't love it but it wasn't horrible. It's very popular in Japan - especially with children.

L-R: Natto, salad, spinach, cuttlefish, fish, egg, eggplant with root vegetable

Miso with mussels

Snack Day 4

Around 9:30 we had a snack of an eel cookie (shaped like an eel), orange juice, and homemade yogurt with strawberry sauce. It was wonderful.

Lunch Day 4

We went to a restaurant in Nagoya on our way to the train station. I had tuna sashimi over rice, pickled daikon, cold tofu with soy sauce, and udon soup with a fish fin. Scott had a fish eye in his soup; he said it was pretty good. I was kind of disappointed to only have a fin in mine. Scott and I poured a raw egg into the udon. Fuminori's family just ate the raw egg with their rice - completely raw.

L-R: Sashimi with rice and seaweed; Udon soup with fish fin; cold tofu; daikon radish

Dinner Day 4

Shizuo made us a fabulous home-cooked dinner. There was salad with lettuce, tomato, bean sprouts, some green plant, and spicy chicken. The main dish was meat and potato croquette over rice and cabbage with miso. I loved it. For dessert, Scott's friend brought Japanese cheesecake. I've had it before and really like it. It's less sweet and dense than American cheesecake.

Salad with lettuce, tomato, bean sprouts, some green plant, and spicy chicken

Croquette and miso soup

Japanese cheesecake

Breakfast Day 5

Breakfast was, unsurprisingly, delicious. There were little bowls of vegetables, one with a little meat in it. The main plates had eggplant with ginger, meatballs, a fried egg, spinach salad, rice, and miso. For "dessert" we had homemade yogurt with homemade grape jam. I loved it all, even though I normally dislike grape jam.

Little bowls of vegetables in center of table

Rice, miso, spinach, egg, eggplant, salad

Yogurt with grape jam

Lunch/Dinner Day 5

We had a very late lunch or early dinner - around 4:30 pm. Scott and I were very hungry. Shizuo made sukiyaki (pronounced skiyaki) - a plate ot vegetables (cabbage, devil's tongue/konyakku, greens, onions, daikon, and enoki mushrooms), tofu, and beef in a sweet sauce. The plate was sitting on a burner at the table. We took out a bite sized portion, dipped it into raw egg, and ate it over a bowl of rice. We ate a lot of food - fabulous as always. We also had a bowl of skemono - pickled cucumbers with vinegar and mustard. I loved them; I probably ate 3 times more than anyone else.

Sukiyaki: Onions, devil's tongue, daikon, mushrooms, tofu, beef, greens

Beef, greens, and devil's tongue on rice with raw egg on the side

Yummy pickles

Breakfast Day 6

We had to eat early this morning to catch the 8 AM train to Niigata. Despite the early hour, Shizuo had a wonderful breakfast ready at 6 AM. The best part was a kabocha (pumpkin) soup. It was incredible. We also had cabbage salad, sauteed rape blossoms, sauteed fish with a garlic soy sauce, and scrambled eggs with sausage. Instead of rice we had two pieces of toast (even though I would have preferred just one) - one with garlic and one with jam. I gave Scott my sausage since I don't like them. This continued the pattern of me disliking the most American thing on the plate.

Kabocha soup

Eggs, sausage, salad, fish

All together

Lunch Day 6

Our first stop in Aizu-Wakamatsu was lunch. We went to a little ramen restaurant that was full of local businessmen. Scott and I ordered a regular sized bowl of ramen, which was huge. The large size was practically a bucket. The ramen had a clear, salty broth. It contained several pieces of fatty pork, green onions, and loads of ramen. Asahi's favorite part was the green onions. I tried to noisily slurp the noodles into my mouth like the Japanese, but I had trouble breathing in enough to get the entire noodle into my mouth at once. Plus, it's hard to get past the notion that loud slurping is rude.

Snack Day 6

Before leaving Tsuruga-jo, we bought a little snack of a stand outside the castle. We had fried mochi with seaweed strips on a stick. It was warm and delicious.

We stopped by a gift shop as we descended the mountain in Aizo-Wakamatsu and bought a box of mochi. We shared it in the car. My mochi was made of a dough that tasted like cornmeal and filled with red beans.

Dinner Day 6

Our last activity of the busy day was dinner. We went to kaiten sushi. Scott was in heaven because the fish in Niigata is very fresh and relatively cheap. We started with salad and miso with salmon. I tried several interesting pieces of sushi - salmon roe (ikura) and squid (ika). I liked them both. Scott doesn't like fish eggs, so I was pleased to like a Japanese food he didn't. I also had two pieces of toro, fatty tuna. One piece was especially fatty and one was medium fatty. I prefer maguro, the lean tuna, whereas Scott drools over toro. Tomohiro also prefers maguro. I also had salmon (sake) and young yellowtail (hamachi). I ate as much as I could, which was far less than Scott. While I like sushi, I can't eat too much; it tastes too rich - like eating a stick of butter. Asahi had different choices than the rest of us. She ate an egg custard dish, ebi (boiled shrimp), tako, and a maki roll with natto.

Salad

Salmon miso

Ika (Squid)

Ikura (salmon roe)

Our table

Empty plates stacked after dinner

When we got back to the hotel, I was still a little hungry. I'd eaten all the sushi I could, but still wanted something else. We ended up going to a 7-11 a few blocks from the hotel and bought a plate of yakisoba and mochi. I was only able to eat half of each and they didn't taste that great, but I was glad to have something else.

Post-Sushi Snack: Mediocre yakisoba

Post-Sushi Snack: Mochi with red beans

Breakfast Day 7

Our hotel in Niigata provided a free breakfast buffet. Like the hotel in Nagoya, it was pretty good. I had rice with seaweed and sesame seed seasoning, omelet, roasted potato, potato croquette, pineapple, cold noodle soup (cold soup isn't good in the morning), two types of fish, and tofu.

L-R: Rice, egg, croquette, potato, pineapple, cold soba soup, tofu, and fish

Lunch Day 7

Lunch was difficult. We were in the middle of Tokyo tourist town. We wanted to find a reasonably priced restaurant that wasn't awful. We picked out a little restaurant in the basement of a building that was pretty inexpensive. The menu was only in Japanese, so we figured it would be better than the tourist traps. It really wasn't. My food was just fine but Scott's tempura was really soggy. I had a bowl of rice with ground tuna sashimi with a raw egg and some vegetables; a bowl of udon; and two little bowls of vegetables.

L-R: Vegetables, ground tuna sashimi with raw egg over rice, Udon soup

Snack Day 7

We got hungry walking around Tokyo in the late afternoon and stopped for a snack. We bought a warm cake of an-pan - a pancake filled with red bean paste. Yum! And more importantly, warm on a cold rainy day.

Dinner Day 7

Dinner was ready soon after we arrived at Emiko's house. She didn't know whether I liked Japanese foods so she tried to make more "American" dishes. We had a croquette of hamburger and mushrooms in tomato soup/sauce. It was a little odd but tasty. I hate the texture of mushrooms but didn't notice them in the croquette. We also has salad and rice. Dessert was not to my taste. It was a bowl of yogurt with bananas and oranges. The yogurt and oranges were fine, but I hate bananas. I managed to quietly slip them to Scott.

Breakfast Day 8

Emiko's kindness unfortunately backfired due to my weird food preferences. She tried to cater to my American tastes. But...I just happen to dislike many typical "American" foods. This was reflected clearly in our breakfast. To explain, I hate ketchup, bananas, hot dogs, and canned vegetables. We had an egg (which I ate), salad (which I ate), toast doused in ketchup and cheese (picked at and then slipped to Scott), a banana (slipped to Scott), and soup with hot dogs and canned vegetables (gave the hot dogs to Scott and ate most of the rest). "Dessert" was a yogurt drink that is very popular with the Japanese. I thought it was nasty - too sweet - but Scott liked it well enough.

Awful yogurt drink

Morning Snack Day 8

We stopped at a rest stop on our way to Ueno Park. Since Scott ate half my breakfast, I was ravenous. We bought a warm onigiri with soy-sauce seasoned rice and no filling. It was delicious.

Lunch Day 8

We ate lunch at a restaurant at the base of Ueno Park. I ordered a bowl of ramen with shrimp tempura. Fabulous.

Afternoon Snack Day 8

After touring and freezing through Ueno Park, we had a snack at a little restaurant that reminded me of Perkin's or Denny's. Scott and I split an apple galette. We also bought unlimited cups of hot chocolate, from one of those automated coffee/hot chocolate machines. It was cheap but warm and that's all that mattered at the time.

Dinner Day 8

Dinner was at the restaurant in the onsen. Scott ordered okonomiyaki. That looked really good to me, but the yakisoba sounded better, so I ordered that. My yakisoba was much better than the version from 7-11. Both of our plates were quite small so I ordered a daikon (white radish) salad. We also split a plate of takoyaki, fried dough with octopus. It was really good.

Okonomiyaki

Yakisoba

Daikon Salad

Takoyaki - The beige flakes on top are fish flakes

The inside of the takoyaki - the octopus is in the right

Dessert was some of the mochi that we gave Emiko.

Black sesame mochi

Breakfast Day 9

Once again, my picky anti-American food tastes came back to bite me. Breakfast was from a convenience store this morning. Emiko wasn't feeling well, so her boyfriend grabbed some takeaway sandwiches and other items. They weren't very good, but it was kind of him to provide for us. There was egg salad sandwiches and tuna sandwiches. I hate canned tuna, so steered clear of those and ate several egg salad sandwiches (even though I also hate mayonnaise). There was also salad with tuna (skipped that too) and a creamy pasta salad (tried some, but had too much mayonnaise). The only part I really liked was the yogurt with jam.

Yogurt pre-jam (definitely not good without some jam)

Tuna salad and pasta salad

Tuna and egg sandwiches

Lunch Day 9

We ate lunch at the home of a family who Scott had known for years. We had a wide selection of drinks to choose from and a little wafer cookie for an appetizer. They cooked Mexican food - either because they worried I wouldn't like Japanese food or because it was fun to cook something ethnic. They made tacos - the ground beef flavored with taco seasoning was just like the tacos I grew up with. For the taco, there was also tomatoes, cheese, lettuce, tortillas, and salsa. They also served hot dogs and fried chicken. Even though the ground beef was good and familiar-tasting, I didn't like the meal that much. My favorite was the fried chicken, which I wouldn't eat at home. My funk wasn't due to the food really...it was mostly due to sitting with a large group of strangers who didn't speak English for 3 hours.

On the bright side, they did serve a delicious strawberry cake for dessert. Scott warned me that the cake might taste weird because Japanese desserts aren't as sweet, but I thought it was perfect.

Drink choices - I went for the Mitsuya Cider and Fanta

Appetizer bowl

Chocolate Wafer

Tacos plus fried chicken (which may have been from KFC and was very good)

Delicious strawberry cake with fresh whipped cream

Dinner Day 9

Our last dinner in Japan was once again delicious. I had a plate of sashimi, grilled fish, rice, daikon pickles, egg custard, and miso. The fish had bones, so I had to be careful as I was eating it. A few times I had to spit out the bones but I generally managed to pick out the meat with my chopsticks. The fish was absolutely fabulous.

Part of the menu was in katakana, one of two Japanese phonetic alphabets. I'd studied it earlier in the day and was eager to practice. I found something that sounded like "Bay" "Ka" "N." Emiko said it was "whale bacon." Our curiosity got the better of us and we ordered it. There was enough for everyone at the table to have a slice. The whale looked like raw bacon. It was smoked, but I assume it was raw otherwise. It had the smoky flavor of bacon but was much lighter than pork bacon.

For dessert, Scott and I ordered two parfaits - one with mango and the other with chocolate and an oddly textured pudding. They were just okay.

L-R: Sashimi, fish, miso, egg custard, daikon radish (invisible), rice

Grilled fish

Sashimi - Salmon, whitefish, and raw shrimp (I didn't eat the heads)

Whale bacon

Mango parfait

Chocolate parfait

Breakfast Day 10

Emiko came through with our last breakfast in Japan. She cooked a fabulous Japanese meal, no longer fearing that I wouldn't like Japanese food. She redeemed her cooking skills in my eyes. I loved everything. In the center of the table were those awful yogurt drinks, umeboshi plums, pickled cucumber, and kimchi. The pickles and kimchee were great - Scott doesn't even like kimchee. Emiko made two main dishes: okonomiyaki and fish with eggplant. I couldn't decide which I liked better. We also had miso soup with tofu and the same vegetables. The miso made the vegetables taste better.

Yogurt drink, umeboshi, cucumber pickles, and kimchee

Everything in the meal

Miso soup with vegetables and tofu

Okonomiyaki

Eggplant and fish

Snack Day 10

On the train ride to Narita airport, Scott and I had drinks: CC Lemon for me and Pepsi for him.

Lunch Day 10

There was no decent food in our part of the airport terminal. There was a Japanese restaurant, but it was really expensive and the food looked bad. So we resigned ourselves to McDonalds. But we got Japanese McDonald's food. We had a teriyaki burger, which was ground pork in teriyaki sauce topped with a poached egg. We didn't really like it. The ground pork made it taste weird. We also split an Ebi burger, a fish filet made with shrimp. It was really good. I wish I'd ordered an entire burger for myself. We also got fries but didn't eat them until we were on the plane. By that time, they were cold and not very good. I gave most of mine to Scott.

Teriyaki burger

Ebi burger