This is from the Japanese Tim Hortons, Mr Donuts. The two on the far right are Curry donuts..delicious.
On the train we had a snack, which is kind of akin to soft fluffy pork rinds... One is salami flavour the other is teriyaki. I love these things, first had them in Canada when someone brought them from Japan. And they are only like 30 cents.
After a couple hours on the train we finally made it to Nagoya. Here are a few shots of the city outside the station, which is huge by the way. Almost all the major stations here are linked to huge department stores or are full of clothes and other shops as well. Something I really don't see back home. Just outside this station on the street you can visit Gucci, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Coci...etc etc..nuts. Shopping in this country is truly for women.
Close to this is the mascot of Nara Prefecture (a prefecture is basically a province), known as Sento-kun. I had been seeing this guy a lot in Japan but only just learned about him now.
He is the mascot for Nara's 1300th anniversary. Nara was once the capital of Japan, until it was moved to Kyoto (and then later to Edo, modern day Tokyo). He has dears antlers (as there are many dear in Nara) and the body of a boy, who actually resembles Buddha. He has got a lot of media attention, mostly negative, from all over Japan. People calling him creepy, scary, an insult to Buddhism etc. I have to say, I can see where they are coming from.
On we went, not totally sure of where our destination was, and found this neat park area. The bridge is for walking only. It leads into "LA park".
Beside that park is another one, "River Park". When your in there you can actually hear, and feel, the subway going past under you. But a very nice place in the middle of a huge city.
After asking for directions at a couple of convince stores, one of them being staffed by Chinese people who couldn't read the map..we finally found our destination! Long time no see, Maple Leaf..(well not true..theres a lot around here...but long time no see this particular one).
We were about an hour early for our appointment, and not being quite hungry enough for lunch yet, opted for a starbucks. I went for the creme brule frappuccino while Naomi had a mango passion frappuccino. I had my first spike of wireless internet joy here.. I was able to connect with my ipod!! Then, as i open the browser, I get a window telling me free internet finished in March....sigh..the dance goes on.
After that we headed back to the consulate.
In my head I pictured this big office with a bunch of Canadians running around doing paperwork. I thought it was going have the smell of maple and the sounds of "Eh" in the distance. I walked into a room which turned out to be like a small waiting room at a doctors office, with one small window to talk to the person behind the counter, who was Japanese.
I noticed a weird habit I seem to have acquired here. She spoke English, of course, but even when she talked to me I would look to Naomi to ask what she was saying. I am so used to having people talk to me, and maybe understanding some of it, but mostly not, so I look to Naomi to translate. But even though she spoke English, and well too, I basically totally tuned her out and just looked at Noami, who in turn stared at me wondering what the heck I was doing. I wonder if this will happen when I go back too..
We got out stuff done then headed back to the station for a soso lunch. I had miso-katsu. Deep fried crispy pork with a thick miso dressing, which was not to bad...it wasn't the nicest looking place so thats probably why it was not that great. Naomi had hitsumabushi. This is a food native to Nagoya, which at first look is a big bowl of rice with Unagi on top (BBQ Eel). You are supposed to eat it 3 ways, first being how it comes. Second you add green onions and other toppings. Third you pour soup into it and finish it like that. It was quite good actually. And we shared some chicken wings!
We grabbed a snack for the train ride to Kyoto, which was a chocolate stuffed waffle, with some coffee flavour, and a waffle with strawberry sauce. Amazing.
On the way we passed the spot of the large battle I told about in a previous post, involving the over 160,000 people. It has some markers showing the area. We had planned to get off here and go walk around, but it was already pretty late so had to just take some pictures as we passed by. After that is a couple random shots on the train.
We got to Kyoto pretty late, and Naomi's friend and kids came to pick us up since they only live about 5 min from the station.
We spent the rest of the night chatting away with her friend and playing with her kids, then passed out for the night.
Next update is off to the old Imperial Palace.
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