Nile seeing friends #3- Lina and Yuuko

Nile had a date with her friends and she stopped by the bakeary on the way where she first thought that Rudolph was shopping. It turned out that Rudolph worked there! After buying bread from Rudolph, Nile had dinner with her firends, Lina and Yuuko.

Nile seeing friends#2-Yu, Hina, Shino, Yukiko

Nile went out for lunch with girl friends. From left to Right, Yu, Hinagiku, Shino. Yu and Shino are friends that Nile has had for ever and Hinagiku is Yukiko's daughter. Hinagiku didn't want to sit anymore. Yu is Shino's older sister and Shino looks just liker her mom now!
Finally, Nile got a photo of all three of them staning together and smiling. Here is Yukiko and Hinagiku. Hina is showing off her new trick of two/peace sign.

Nile seeing her friends #1-Cay and Chisato

Chisato and her son, Cay-- for more photos, please see her blog. And this is Nile with Cay on her lap.

Fukuoka Fish Market

There is a large fish market in Fukuoka. It opens over night when the fishermen come back with their catch, and closes at 8 AM. We went there first thing in the morning, which for them is closing time. There were boxes and boxes of various fish and other marine life.

Some of the fish are too big to fit in the box, so they cut out sections for their tails. This is konbu, sea weed, with eggs layed on it. On the right, fish and fish eggs.

The fish market is very large. At this stall they also had a very large fish.




These tanks have fugu in them. (Fugu is blow fish.) If you couldn't tell by now, Matt is fascinated with fugu.

There are also a few vegitable stores at the fish market. Most of them cater towards the chefs that cook on the boats, so a lot of them are closed at this time.

After shopping for fish, we went to a restaurant and had a traditional fish breakfast. (Matt had koroke: fried potatos.) This is dinner time for fishermen, so it was much more hearty than a regular breakfast. Also, some of the men at the restaurant were drinking. It's the end of their day.

The fish Takashi got at the market still had a hook in its mouth!

Hatae's

We went to Hatae's restaurant. He does amazing things with soba and makes great tempura. Yoshie was practicing being a waitress there.

This is one of the many dishes that he prepared for us. It is a raw fish marinated in seaweed. On the left is freshly grated wasabi and on the right are decorative leaves.

Sumo!

Today we went to a sumo match.

We got zabuton seats. Here's one of the first bouts we saw. The guy got slammed to the ground outside of the ring. There were a few times when the contenders went flying into people in the audience.

After the Makushita contenders, the Juryo came in. These are the higher ranking sumo wrestlers. After their introduction, there was an intermission where Matt got to stand next to the top wrestler for a picture. Here is the case of trophies that they give out at the end.

Also at the intermission we bought some sake much like people buy beer at ball games in the states.




Advertisements at the matches are paraded around before the match starts. The one on the far left with the woman on it is for baking soda. This is the final match of the year. The yokuzana (champion), and from Mongolia, was against a Japanese from Fukuoka. The Japanese lost, and so the crowd was upset. As is tradition, they all threw their zabutons.

Nile threw her zabuton and made Matt throw his. This picture is someone else's zabuton who had left. Among the trophies is this giant metal Coke bottle. There are corporate sponsors who give away everything from cash to cows and 2 tons of vegetables.

Best Sushi in the World

We went to Yoshitomi's tonight. We were very happy to be there. There, the owner Yoshitomi, provides a one man show with sushi.

Squid with sea urchin on top. Yoshitomi carefully places salt on top. The end product also has some yuzu juice on it too.

Tokyo in 23 hours

So, we left for Japan. These are all the things they took from us before we could board. Actually, it was a rather helpful display of what you could bring and how to pack what you can bring. Our favorite is the "one squeeze of toothpaste left in a regular toothpaste container is not appropriate."

The yellow bumps in the ground help blind people know where they are. You see these all over Japan in public places.

First things first, we went to Akihabara the electronics town in Tokyo where Matt has drempt of coming for the last 3 years. All the cool cats call Akihabara, "Akiba."

In Akiba we went to two robot stores; Matt bought some robot parts. We also saw some really cool, but expensive, "Bio Metal" which contracts when electricity runs through it. On the way to Akiba Matt saw someone with a HUD attached to her glasses. It superimposes infromation over what you are seeing. Arcades are really big in Japan. This is a game where you can play a taiko drum with a friend.


That night we met up with Nile's friends in Tokyo. We had nabe which is a soup-like dish that is cooked in a pot on the table. Pictured are Renna, Nile, Matt, Yuske, Yoshito, and his fiancee, Miho.

The dish is eaten with a raw egg (they are safe here in Japan). Yoshito's fiancee got an egg without a yolk. I've never seen that before. She got a new bowl and another egg. Yoshito and his fiancee are getting married next year.


After dinner we took a picture of Yoshito in his crazy formal business outfit.


The next day we went to a fun store called Tokyo Hands. They sell everything from craft and art supplies to clothing. These are hanko stamps that people use for "signing" their art work. Matt bought some things for his origami hobby.

Next we went to Shinjukugyoen, the old imperial garden. The greenhouse is the tallest we have ever been to. There was an orchid show going on.








Being a show, there were award winners too.

This is one of our favorites. There was a little magnifying glass to look at it with. This picture is taken through the magnifying glass.


The inside of the greenhouse is an expanse of green



This cycad is pregnant. The pod you can see between the leaves is a fertilized fruit.

There was also a beautiful reflecting pond. The lilly here is closed because it is day time. In the background you can see a couple of buds, and next to the flower is a leaf unfurling. The lotus flowers stay open for several days.

Matt liked the towers in the distance with a collection of microwave dishes pointing out.

Our time in Tokyo was up, so we took the train to the airport. We rode the train a lot. You can't get anywhere in Tokyo without riding the subway. This is Tokyo station. Matt thought it was odd that in such a huge city they chose one of the hundreds of stations to call Tokyo.

At the airport the recycling bin was labeled this way. The katakana for "Pet Bottles" is a transliteration of just that. In Japanese, it means plastic bottles, but neither of us know why it is called that way.

It was thanksgiving night when we arrived in Fukuoka. Takashi made us a fabulous dinner. His seouf cheff has started working with him and helped make the dinner. Yoshie was there too, but the picture didn't come out well.

We had a really nice dish with freshly grated wasabi and some Japanese greens on it. Fresh wasabi is very special, even here in Japan. We also had some smoked octopus. The main course was duck and pork. Both were cooked to perfection.

Happy Thanksgiving!