The girlfriend has landed!

Yikes, almost 4 weeks since the last post! Ok, I have a good excuse, my girlfriend came to visit for a couple of weeks. We spent a couple of nights in Tokyo in the Kadoya hotel in Shinjuku. It was a bit expensive, but then again not too bad for Tokyo. And of course completely worth it to show her around the city.

We then headed back to my place in Nagano, had dinner with my friends here, then a day later hopped on a bus to Kyoto for a couple of nights. We stayed at a really neat hostel just south of the station (J-Hoppers). The price was pretty good and the hostel quiet, clean and friendly. We saw the tourist bits (ginkakuji, kinkakuji, nijo jo, imperial gardens) and also took a wander along the philosophers path, which I hadn't done before. We happened to walk past a Geisha house and saw one being dressed (!) through the doorway. I decided to leave the camera in it's bag.

We also took a walk down the canal (surrounded by neon restaurant signs and weeping willow trees) and through the narrow backstreets that I think give Kyoto it's charming quality. After being fleeced for a really small and really expensive meal we found an awesome sushi bar along the canal and fed our faces for half the price of the previous meal.

After Kyoto we visited some places around the area in which I live, including "my" lake and a lovely mountain-viewing area called Shirabiso Kogen. We ate there and spent the day sat out reading, playing guitar (on a mountain, yes!!) and taking pictures.

Around the Shimoina area we sampled many of my favourite restaurants and eateries and generally spent time relaxing in the beautiful weather around the lake and local parks. Bliss!

But alas she is now back in Australia continuing her tour of it and Asia. Hopefully I can tempt her back before the end of the year...

Enkai dress code - lesson learned

This evening all the teachers at my school had an enkai for the departing teachers. Earlier I asked what kind of dress code it was, and I was told "not formal.. casual."

Some new Japanese then:
Formal = wear a suit.
Informal = wear a suit.

And here are some pics of the food:


O-sushi.


The unhappiest fish (Tai) I ever saw. When it was brought in all cut up and ready to be eaten it was still moving. I watched horrified for a few seconds before I had to turn my head away.


Another unhappy sea creature.


O-sashimi.

Sushi firsts

Last night we sampled Shimojo village - a nice, long soak in the onsen overlooking the valley and mountains, then to a rather exquisite sushi restaurant, tucked away from the main road.

We sat ourselves down at the bar, ordered, and watched the chef do his thing. He later told us from all the different places the various sushi came from, although my memory isn't good enough to remember.

Most will know I'm not a big fan of squid, so when the first piece was served I was a little upset to find my delicious bed of rice topped with the fattest and whitest chunk of squid I've ever seen on sushi. I reminded myself just how much this was costing me and down the hatch it went. I have to say though, it was quite nice, not unpleasant at all.

A first for me was salmon eggs. These small orange eggs burst in your mouth when you eat them - quite a sensation. I also tried flying fish eggs too. These are about 6mm in diameter and perhaps a dozen or so are sat on rice and wrapped in seaweed. Again different, but not unpleasant at all. When crunched they have a creamy sort of texture.

Sea urchin was an interesting one. If I had to try and describe how it looks I would say like a thick orange paste, pitted (not unlike an orange skin). The taste is also difficult to describe, as to label it just 'fishy' does it an injustice, but neverthless it does have a salty/sea twang to it.

All this washed down with the tastiest iced green tea, then hot green tea. The price is a little steep for Japan, but about what you'd pay for a lobster dish at a family restaurant in the UK. Well worth it, and we'll definately be going back.


Fat and content.