ThinkTwisted

Today was quiet by design. I have been exhausted and feeling run down the last few days. I went to bed early and got up around 730. I ate a quick breakfast of yogurt and Japanese “granola.” I went to the gym to run for a bit, did what lifting I could. A hotel with a gym is a luxury in Japan, we are staying in a very nice hotel, but the gym is very small. There are a three treadmills, a two bikes, and two ellipticals. A machine for bench pressing, a machine for leg extensions, and an ab machine.
After showering, packing up, and checking out, we walked around downtown Utsunomiya a bit. We went to the main temple in town, which has a huge set of stairs leading up to the top. There were several vendors and people looking for donations in the square down below. There was an animal rescue organization with dogs out for people to pet. They were very friendly. I took a picture of two of them and a Japanese man came running over yelling something. I thought maybe I upset him by taking pictures, but he ran back to his bag and grabbed a pair of reindeer antlers, put them on the dog and wanted me to take a picture. Of course, I did and thanked him very much! Things in Japan always have to be dressed up and presented in some way.

We climbed up to the temple. It was small but beautiful. The temples in Japan seem to be a sanctuary for birds because they are really the only places in the city with a decent number of trees. The birds were out singing in full force since it was a warm and sunny day. We didn’t spend long at the temple, many of them are similar; if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen most. I founding it interesting/sad that even in the temple, Japan’s most sacred ground, there are vending machines. That didn’t stop me from buying my favorite lemon and honey tea.

After the temple we went to an outdoor mall with many shops, both local and chains. It was similar to Easton in Columbus, except the walk ways have a very high glass cover. We saw the usual stores selling dried goods, snacks, and clothing. One had dried octopus on a stick (bleck!), as well the tiny dried fish that were on my broccoli yesterday (gag!). I’ve been doing well with the fish smell, but I think I’ve had enough, I couldn’t take much more today. We walked around looking for a decent place to eat. I was still hoping to find a good ramen shop, but we had no luck.

In the mall, there was a woman on the street performing with a monkey. It was quite an impressive display. He acted just like a little person, walking on two legs the entire time. He pretended to listen as she whispered in his ear and then whispered back in her ear. He walked on this hands, and jumped a huge gap (a good 10 feet) between two sets of stairs. He would land on his hands and walk down the stairs.

In one of the stores, they had fresh produce in gift boxes. Some of the prices were insane. The most expensive I saw was a cantaloupe for 15,750 yen, about $189 USD! It better be one hell of a melon for that kind of price.

We ended up walking back to the train station by our hotel and going to the food court. We found an Udon noodle place that made the noodles fresh in the shop. It had a long line so we figured it would be good. I got the torotama udon – regular udon noodles, a poached egg, some type of white “dipping sauce.” I also got a piece of deep fried sweet potato and a serving of rice wrapped in seaweed. The potato and rice were both excellent. The Udon was pretty good, but I’m just not much of a soup/noodle guy.

We went back to the hotel and picked up our suitcases. From there it was back to the station to board the bullet train to Omiya. In Omiya, we transferred to Kawagoe and checked into our hotel. I spent about two hours doing Christmas shopping. We met in the hotel at 6, with plans to go to Oatman’s because we were craving burgers. Unfortunately, Oatman’s was closed for a private party. We ended at a Korean BBQ place, which was good. They had an interesting suit of classical style armor (reproduction I’m sure) on display. They gave us candy and gum after the meal, I got a piece of hard blueberry candy that was very good, and some “dry” gum. Not sure I want to find out what the “wet” gum is.