Thursday of Mom's visit

After a very busy Wednesday we had a slightly more relaxing Thursday. We were supposed to have dinner that night with my friends/students and before dinner Ayumi agreed to take us out around Mihama (a small town near Tsuruga and her hometown).

She took us to a scenic overlook of her town, Mihama five lakes. Bet you can't guess what it overlooked.



That's right! A bunch of lakes! Five of them apparently.


A map of the "five" lakes. Yeah, those center two, where they are connected by a giant gap and it looks like one lake to you and me, well, apparently that is two lakes. In my opinion, it is because four is an unlucky number in Japanese, shi (the word for four) is the same sound as shi (the word for death) so four lakes would sound like death lakes and that would not be good for tourism. Hence the questionable "fifth" lake.


Yup, those are "two" lakes.


To get up to the viewing spot we had to take a chair lift.



ooooh, scary! I wish Jessica and I had gone here, she would have lost her mind. I am a mean mean man.



Mom, myself, and Ayumi posed. Notice the exact same outfit in all of my pictures. I only have two long sleeve shirts that aren't dress shirts and, as much as my friends tell me it is okay, I still feel like I should cover up the tattoos when traveling around. I get stared at enough. But, as warm as I was getting last week, the hell with it. I am gonna be the walking freakshow for these people this summer, I can't do an entire summer of long sleeves.

Notice the locks on the chains behind us?



They were everywhere. Apparently, another homonym in Japanese is the word for bond and five, so people buy locks and chain them up here with a five yen piece locked on them to bring good luck in love. A couple is supposed to have an unbreakable love if they put the lock here.

Like I said, the locks were everywhere! Any place they could be locked. And people would add little trinkets to them. It was pretty cool. And if you think for one second it wasn't completely planned by the operators of the overlook, well, you are a crazy person. Ayumi said that no young people used to come up to the overlook, so maybe 5 or 6 years ago they came up with the idea of the locks to attract young couples up to the overlook. I asked Ayumi where her lock was, but she wouldn't tell me. I am CERTAIN she has at least one lock up there.

And so does a Skin's fan apparently.


That might be from the former Geos teacher now that I think about it. He was from Virginia.

It was a very beautiful sight and a place I couldn't get to on my own, so that was a special treat.



Oh, and here is a picture of my mom riding the chair lift down from the overlook. She said she was terrified, but looks like she is having a blast here doesn't it? Waving her hands around in the air. Either that or she is having a panic attack and trying to flap her wings to keep from falling.


Then we went to dinner.

One of my students/friends, Mamoru, works for a nuclear power company. He lives at a company owned apartment building and said his cafeteria had good food for cheap. Okay, I guess. Not really sure what to expect from a cafeteria. Turns out, it was a feast! Mamoru really went all out and set up a fantastic, special dinner.

One of the best things he did was arrange for cabs for everyone, so everyone could drink. Which is quite unusual for this group. Mostly it is just me who drinks since everyone else has to drive and they have super strict drinking and driving laws in Japan. Not this night. I got to enjoy my friends getting hammered. I want it to happen more often quite frankly, it was great fun.

Anyway, I forgot to take any pictures of people, such an idiot. I really should remember people pics, that is what I am going to want to remember years from now, not the food I ate. I, however, DID take pictures of the food.


Here is our huge sushi plate. Notice all the half drunken beers before any food has been touched. Classy! The best part of Japanese food presentation, the plastic grass they include with everything. Why? I have no idea. Super strange.

Each place setting had a plate with a candle underneath it. On the plate was some meat and vegetables. You lit the candle and then let it go until the candle burned itself out, that is when you knew your meat was done. That was super fancy and cool. Plus, fire. So you know that is good.

On the left was some bamboo shoots with a spicy sauce. They were absolutely delicious. Just the right amount of spice and they were crispy too, kind of like eating carrots. I want them again. right now preferrably. On the right...well, that is whale. Whale blubber I think. It was...not as good as the bamboo shoots. It was more like exactly what you think eating blubber would be like. Apparently it is considered a delicacy in Japan and was something special Mamoru got for us, which was great. But, it was still blubber.

Here is myself and my mom sitting behind a boat with fish in it. What you say, you want a closer look at the fish boat? Your wish is my command!


Look at all that fresh fish! And it comes packed in the fish it came from!



Yum! Nothing I like better than to see the food I am eating looking forlorn that I am eating it. Guilt trip food.

After five beers I tried to make the fish smile.



First, I showed it my sexy face. But the fish was unimpressed.

Then I just tried to pry open its mouth. In the end, the fish just wouldn't smile and ended up looking angry that we were eating it.

After dinner some of us decided to head out for a nightcap, cuz we just hadn't had enough to drink yet. (At this point I had something like half a dozen beers plus several glasses of sake, and most of the people drinking had had the same. I was pacing myself, my mom was there, I didn't want to get too drunk). We decided to go to a local bar and proceed to shut the place down. Apparently I had had enough to drink because I ordered this abomination:



What is this purple monstrosity? Even Ayumi looks perplexed.

Here she is saying, get it away from me:


And I couldn't agree more. I have no idea what it was and it tasted like sweet death. From now on I am sticking to whiskey and beer. Healthy drinks.

And suddenly it was 1 am. Dinner had started at 6 pm by the way. And the next day we were supposed to go to Kanazawa starting at 9 or 10 am, so it had to be called a night.

OH and I forgot, I saw a monkey on the way up to Mihama Five Lakes! Maybe the highlight of my day. Well, one of them anyway.