Sunday, November 18, 2007

11/18/07 Back From Tokyo

I just returned from a long weekend of sightseeing with the parents. They will be returning to the US tomorrow morning. I Hope they had a good time... I have a good amount of stuff that I need to write about. There's still even a bit left from last weekend!

Nikko, Nikko. So many sights, so many pictures. After doing a solid amount of exploring we had all worked up an appetite, so we all walked to a nearby little restaurant and had a bite to eat. First, let me explain a little something. In my humble experience, every single city, town, or fork in the road has some specific food that it is "famous" for. So, whenever you go anywhere, you are supposed to buy and enjoy this food(I think that Ashikaga is supposed to be extra adept at making soba noodles... kinda lame).

Well, unbeknownst to me, Nikko has an extra cool famous food called yuba. Yuba is what you get when you boil soy milk and then peel off the skin that develops on the surface of the milk. Then, similar to tofu, you can do all kinds of creative things with it: smash it, roll it up, even close your eyes and pretend it tastes like fried chicken! So when we sat down to eat lunch, the Tanaka's treated us to lunch sets with several dishes included. One was sweet, one wet, one dry, but just about everything had some sort of yuba in it. Yes, just like Iron Chef!


Mom and Tom discovering the delightful world of soy milk skin.


The last stop on our excursion was one of the best. A very classic Japanese garden named Shōyō-en was decked out in autumn hues. Here are a few highlights.








Mom getting a closer look.


Go ahead and give this one a click to see up close. You might notice that the leaves of the Japanese maple tree slightly resemble cannabis leaves. As a result, I will sometimes see the occasional old lady or little kid unknowingly wearing a hat or a T-shirt with a big pot leaf on it. Quite humorous.


Whelp, thats the end of Nikko. What a great time. Now, I have tons of stuff to talk about from this trip to Tokyo, whew. Having adventures is hard work. Later!

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