We have been back in Atlanta seeing family and friends and enjoying all the delicious food that this city has to offer. As a usual routine, we started our stay with delicious cheese and keep ‘tasting’ various amazing food at home and restaurants with great company!
Goodbye Mac… we will surely miss you and know you will miss us too. We hope you enjoy your retirement in the land of the rising sun! As a goodbye, we decided to participate in the latest Internet meme – Cat Bearding – Mac wasn’t very cooperative… we guess he didn’t want to see us go…
We saw the strangest rainbow the other day in Kamakura… it wasn’t after a storm either. It was a perfectly circular rainbow surrounding the sun in the sky! Chiz and I have never seen anything like it! We took the picts below – but they don’t do it justice… it was beautiful. It was difficult to take the picture because we were shooting directly into the sun, but hopefully it gives you an idea of what we saw. Have you ever seen a rainbow like this?
We have been soaking up some more sights, eating amazing food and seeing friends and family before we leave Japan. I will especially miss all the amazing meals made by Chiz’ mom. I feel very lucky to have been able to experience home cooked Japanese food from such an amazing chef!
Chiz and I decided to take a trip to Sapporo while we were up in the northern part of Japan. Chiz had been there when she was a child and this was my first time in the city. We were only there for a couple of days and had the opportunity to meet with Chiz’ cousin who lives there.
Sapporo is a beautiful city laid out in a grid with wide streets. Of course it has an amazing train system and a whole network of underground streets due to the cold weather. Actually, besides the cold weather, it is a really wonderful city! While we were there it was quite cold, windy and even rained a bit, but we still had a wonderful time! We would even like to go back again to see more of the city another time!
We went to Aomori to visit Chiz’ grandmother, aunts and uncle. Aomori is up north at the top of the island of Honshu. This was our second time there together. We had visited before we left for Australia, joining the famous Aomori Nebuta Festival. This time it was more relaxing, we just hung out, did some sight seeing and of course ate some amazing food!
We stayed with Chiz’ uncle and he surprised us with his amazing cooking. He has recently started making bread as well, and went out of his way to make us feel welcome! He also taught us Japanese chess, Shogi, and I really like this new game!
In addition to Chiz’ uncles amazing food, we also went to my favorite sushi place. It is a fish market where you can buy a bowl of rice and fresh sashimi right from the vendors! It is called a noke-don and I love it! We ate there a few times while we were there – but I think I could eat there every day! I also discovered my new favorite sashimi, sujiko. It is salted baby salmon eggs still in its sack. WOW!
We went to visit Aomori Ken, the famous dog at the Aomori museum. We also took a day trip to Hirosaki, where there is a famous castle with many red bridges surrounding it. It also happened to be cherry blossom season (although they bloomed a bit late) so there was a festival happening as well.
It was a really fun trip!
We happened to be in Yokohama on our “engagement anniversary.” It was 4 years ago on that day that Chiz and I got engaged in Yokohama. Since we happened to be back in Yokohama, we decided to celebrate by going to High Tea.
Chiz found an interesting place called Kiyoken, which is a Chinese restaurant that is well known for its dumplings. Strange that they would be offering a High Tea, but they do. It is quite limited, only offering 10 per day. We went early and got a spot. It was really great, with an Asian spin on it. Everything was great, but the sweets weren’t as good as the bottom layers. Asians aren’t known for their desserts anyway!
We came across some funny and interesting stores and products while we have been in Japan. For example, a store named “Human Woman.” Our favorite though was the writing on this toothbrush, personifying it:
We spent some time in Yokohama with Chiz’ dad, doing shopping, sight seeing and just relaxing. We went to a really great museum, the Sogo Museum of Art, for an exhibition of an artist named Akira Yamaguchi.
Here are some picts from our visit to Yokohama – mostly they are picts of the breakfast and dinner Chiz and I made for her dad while we were there:
It is obvious that Chiz gets her cooking talents from her mother. Chiz’ mom is an amazing chef, and we have been lucky to be staying with her and enjoying her delicious cooking! Unlike in the west, where there is basically one dish with one or two side dishes…. in Japan every meal consists of MANY different side dishes! Chiz’ mom does an amazing job cooking so many for a meal! Eating meals at the home of a great cook is often better than eating in a restaurant! Check out some of these meals she prepared for us and you’ll see what I mean:
