I am going to combine a few random days of small events into this one blog to make it a bit easier.
Our first trip took us to Kyoto city to meet 3 of Naomi's friends for lunch. I may have posted similar pictures before but here is a couple from the station. The place is just massive.
Naomi and Charles climbing the red carpet. This led to the building with a bunch of fancy restaurants of which one we were going to. It is also home to a musical theatre, Kyoto Gekijo.
And Charles inside looking at some art, a glass picture of old Kyoto.
I somehow never took any photos of lunch..it was a traditional Japanese style meal with a variety of small portions. Most of it was already served when we got there and then they brought out a couple other portions after. I was busy talking to her friends husband who spoke English quite well as he has lived in a few different European countries for a number of years.
After we said goodbye we went looking for a Starbucks for an internet break and found this big Christmas tree right outside of it which was done in an Alice and Wonderland theme.
A note on Christmas. Naomi made it sound like there would be very little like Christmas around here. Yes and no. Very few houses I have seen have lights at all (though the few that did went ALL out) but many houses have small decorations here and there. A wreath, some small santas, couple tiny reindeer's etc. Every mall and public place however is cranking out the Christmas music just like back home and has decorations all around (and staff in Christmas hats or in more humiliating cases full on Santa suits). Christmas itself however is not a holiday and if anything is mostly all about the commercial side of things. Which in itself is really not all that different from home.
Random gas station picture. The service is quite nice. Roll in, a guy signals you into your spot, opens your door while greeting you and hands you a towel to wipe down the inside of your windows. They will wash your windows and fill up your gas for you and when all finished the guy asks which exit you wish to use and then jumps into traffic to stop the cars so you can get out.
Another mini. Zoom in to see the back window.
If you can't it has 'Little Bastard' on the back of it. It seems to be a staffers car as I saw it a few times so I will get a close up of it later.
A picture from a 20min lunch we had with another of Naomi's friends. We got lost in Osaka and after dragging a very fussy kid in the rain around we finally made it to her poor friend who was on her lunch break. We got there after they stopped serving food, but in typical Japanese fashion they still made our lunch. A margherita pizza (basil, mozzarella and tomatoe sauce) and carbonara pasta (egg, cheese, bacon, mushrooms and black pepper). Very good. And both for under 10 bucks! It also included a help yourself salad and juice bar.
We also spotted a big Christmas tree in a hotel lobby so ran in to take a picture.
Today while, yet again, meeting another friend, we had to make a pit stop to feed a, yet again, very fussy baby. We took refuge from the screams and cold in a fancy looking coffee shop. Note I took those pictures on the way out, not in, just in case you are thinking I was being an ass.
Making the best of it we thought we should get some food too! Got a hot chocolate (with some whipping cream and chocolate sauce on top), cinnamon toast with honey (I don't know if I have said it before, but I love Japanese bread. It is so large and fluffy) and a waffle with strawberry sauce (and a massive piece of ice cream). You could really taste the strawberries in that sauce, very delicious and certainly homemade.
We eventually made it to Hikone to meet her friend. We had a few hours to kill and took a walk around back to a familiar castle as well as grabbed lunch.
As I covered all of this in great detail I will refer you here if you want to read about it again:
Here is Masa running around the statue of general Ii Naomasa
And a miniature model of the castle at the statue feet.
A shot of the castle on the other side of the first set of walls.
Everyone's favourite mascot Hikonyan! Still everywhere.
We didn't go much farther in than the front gates. He was afraid of that fake horse in the stables and I couldn't get him to pet it. I don't blame him. It was rather dark in there this time and eerily quiet. Looking back at the other blogs it is probably for the best we did not go in as that place was huge. May have forgotten that today while we were there. Charles enjoyed running around the gravel and it seemed to be his highlight.
We went for lunch at a weird little place in the local mall. This was a beautiful example of Japanese culture mashing. It looked to be a Western themed place and was decked out in hats, Cowboys and Indians pictures and other just random paraphernalia. The food however was just a huge random assortment of typical easy Japanese food. There was a tiny area where one chef did the cooking. We got there a little after 2pm and the 3 staff member were eating lunch at the time. They didn't seem to mind serving us, though speaking from experience, I am sure they hated it.
I had a tonkatsu (deep friend pork sandwich) sandwich. It had some kind of salad inside of it and also a sweet sauce on top. Quite good actually.
Naomi had the omurice (an omelette stuffed with rice). It tasted very home made, not sure if good or bad.
Charles shared in with a Winnie the Pooh bowl and Power Rangers spoon.
When we finally met her friend we headed back to an old spot we had been to last time (that I only vaguely recall). It would seem I neither took a picture of the exterior this time or last time. It was a large building that had a large area for treats you could buy to take out, a traditional Japanese restaurant, or a place for afternoon tea and cake.
We went to the tea place which was quite nice. I chose the 2 cake set with tea (Earl Grey, hot). After you order you go over to the cake window and pick which ones you want (they had about 15 different ones). I went for the fruit cake and cheese cake. Both delicious (on a comically huge plate). I think it is a slight scam though as by getting the 2 piece one both pieces were quite slim, where as Naomi and her friend both got 1 piece and they were certainly larger!! Oh well. 10 bucks, I can't complain.
Finally here is Charles in a neat shopping cart. I love this. He seems moderately unhappy. It was rather late. Though he seemed to perk up after he grabbed a box of cookies off the shelf and slowly opening it through the store.
WOW! Naomi got her haircut and a new coat!!!!!!!!! Haircut is awesome!! Nice coat, too.
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