Nagoya and Himeji

Our first morning in Japan we woke up super early and couldn't get back to sleep. It was raining outside--bummer. Michael had told us about the Nagoya fish market, and that it is best to go early, so we headed across the street and tapped Michael and Amanda's window (they were also awake). We headed off with them and some umbrellas to see the market at 6 am. Unfortunately this was a day that most of the vendors were closed so it wasn't nearly as interesting as usual according to Michael. We did see some red snappers and octopus.

We started to get hungry so set off to find some food. I was immediately craving some Udon noodles, but unfortunately most of the restaurants open at that hour were what appeared to like a Denny's of Japanese food. One of them tantalizingly advertised, "Our food is safe to eat."

We opted for instant ramen and spicy crackers at a convenience store. When we returned to eat our goods I think it amused Alex that this was the product of our early excursion.

After having breakfast together we voted on a change of plans, since originally we had planned on a hike and it was raining. Michael and Amanda had wanted to head further south at some point, towards Hiroshima to Himeji castle, so we thought this would be a good rainy weather activity.
Here is Himenji castle the day we saw it:




Here it is on a clear day:

Himeji castle is one of the oldest castles in Japan that is still in its original state. It was so interesting to learn that the design of the castle was centered around defense against ninjas. There were holes in the walls and special windows designed to drop rocks onto ninjas who were scaling up them. We walked through the women's quarters and then through the main building, which had 6 levels. A little disturbing was the building that was specially designated for suicide. I loved the detail on each roof tile.

Inside there were some artifacts to see, like old weapons and samurai suits. Look how little they were!!

The top level had beautiful views and a shrine.


After our tour of the castle we set out on a quest to find Michael some new flip flops. His toe piece had pulled through the top and he was having to replace it every 2 minutes. With his big flappers we had a hard time finding any shoes, let alone cheap replacement flip flops that fit.

Soon we got too hungry to concentrate on the quest. I was still determined to find my Udon. Luckily this town had a place that made the Udon noodles before your very eyes before serving them to you. They were amazing. My mouth is watering at the very thought right now. The Japanese people in the restaurant were laughing at me for taking photos. Funny, because we laugh at Japanese tourists here for taking photos of everything we find commonplace.


After lunch we head back out. First stop was to get some dessert we had spotted at the outdoor mall: freshly made taiyaki. These are little waffles in the shape of a fish. They are filled with sweet red bean paste. We ordered ours with a scoop of ice cream. They tasted just as good as they smelled and the young girl selling them was thrilled we, as Americans were buying them. She was very eager to know if we liked them.

After our dessert we walked back through another portion of the mall. We passed back by the place that Amanda had purchased a green tea soft serve that tasted strangely fishy. Finally we happened upon a store that sold size "Large Large" mock crocs. Walking around the mall we saw some great T-shirts with funny uses of the English language. One of our favorites was "Who knows what the future holds my hand." I found humor in these vending machine products:

On the train ride back we figured out that you could swivel your entire 2 seat row around 180 degrees so you could face the other people in your group. I'm telling you, those Japanese trains are something else. We had a great time chatting on the train. We decided to go back to Nagoya instead of trying to go to Hiroshima. Alex and Amy and the kids had stayed back and we wanted to watch the kids that night while A&A went out together.

Out on the town in Nagoya we saw the sweetest ride imagineable, the "Night Emperor." We had fun imagining what the rider was wearing. I think the consensus was a white leisure suit with nothing underneath, the top buttons undone, fake chest hair (since japanese men have none) and sunglasses.


We had a good time playing with the kids that evening. These days they are all about Pokemon. Alex and Amy needed the night out. They had spent the afternoon dealing with the stress of a lost wallet! Luckily early the next morning the bus people called to say they found it. We figured the wallet had to have gone through at least 3 sets of hands, so were amazed and grateful when it had everything in it still, including a large wad of cash! We added honesty and integrity to our growing list of Japanese admiration.