Some Local Tourism

I've had a couple mini-adventures lately that deserve to be grouped together. The first was a visit to the Ashikaga Flower Park. This year we went in the evening because someone said the flowers would look cool lit up. I suppose they were right.

Here is one of the giant wisteria plants that everyone had come to the park to see.

I think this wall of flowers must be something new, as I don't remember seeing it last year. Last year's post on the park during the day time can be found here.

The gift shop, shown here testing the boundaries of the purple flower-related merchandise that people will actually buy.

The next little trip that I went on was to Tatebayashi, to see the koinobori. I mentioned it a few posts ago, explaining that it is a fish flag hoisted in the air meant to celebrate children in the household. Well Tatebayashi went a bit overboard with the concept-

-by covering a river in a zillion of them.


A very odd tourist attraction.

After several minutes of gazing at the fish in awe and confusion, Shaun, Mitsuo, his family and I all went for Mexican food. I was interested in having some more Mexican cuisine experiences in Japan, and this was a good one. The place is maybe the most authentic looking Mexican restaurant I've ever been to. The place was nestled in an old gas station which added to its rustic appeal.

There weren't any cheesy sombreros or piñatas hanging from the walls in this place. There were a few pieces of artwork here and there mixed in with the odd antiquated beer advertisement. I really like how rough the place felt.

The food felt much more authentic than is usually available in Japan (but I've never been to Mexico, so I'm not going to pretend to know what authentic is).

A new addition to the adventure crew is Mitsuo's baby, Saori. Here she is enamored with a hand wipe package, likely asking herself an important question: "How this would taste?"