Kansai Trip

Over the past two weeks I have had a lot of excitement and traveling. Ryan came and visited for a week, then I went with the midtermers down to Karuizawa for a midtermers Christmas party, then hopped in the car with Keiichi, Keith, and Yamao and drove down to Osaka.

Because of the holiday season in Japan focused over New Years, we decided to drive overnight because it is common during this week to have 60 mile backups on the interstate. We left at 8pm on Saturday the 29th and arrived at 6am Sunday morning at Keiichi's parents house. We went to church and then made mochi the old fashion way with a stone bowl and a wooden mallet (Mochi is where you take steamed rice and smash it until it becomes one ball of rice). On New Years Eve we went to Kyoto and ate some zenzai which is a red bean soup with mochi. We then had some Okonomiyaki and Yakisoba at a nearby restaurant. (Notice the trends of food during this time) We then came back home and ate Nabe together at the house. Keith and I were the only ones that stayed up for the New Year. Here in Japan it is not as exciting to stay up and watch the new year come in as compared to New Years day as a day of celebration in comparison to America where you only watch football.

On New years day we ate the tradional New Years day meal. Before we ate the meal, I was told by Keiichi's Mom that it was not a delicious meal but we eat it because of tradition. I was then told by Keiichi that I did not need to eat very much of it because we were going to Costco later in the day and we could eat something there. So we then went to Costco and I bought Granola Bars, Goldfish, Ruffles Potato chips, Quakers granola cereal, tomato soup, cream of mushroom, and rootbeer. Mmm. Yummy.

On the 2nd we went to Himeji Castle which was absolutely gorgeous and then to a hotel with their family to celebrate Masanori's 20th birthday. While at the hotel we ate a huge dinner which was 95% fish. It was a four course meal of every kind and style of fish that you could imagine. I think we were served over 50 different kinds and styles of fish in one meal. Each plate came out with a variety of things. After suffering through a huge meal with a lot of raw fish and their babies yet unborn (fish eggs) we awoke to a breakfast of...guess what...FISH!

Luckily the day changed as we went home and went to a yakiniku restaurant for dinner. I am not sure why there are not restaurants like this in America but my guess is because of health codes. Here you have a small fire in front of you and you order a plate of raw meat and you grill it to your liking. You can order several flavors and cuts of meat. We started off with some thin sliced pork and a plate of sliced cows tongue. I realize that may sound gross but it is extremely good and a specialty in parts of Japan. We then received two plates of rib fingers and slices of the cows thigh. We also received one plate of what I will never recommend eating to anyone, cows intestine. The taste isn't bad but it was like trying to eat my Mom's overcooked porkchops when I was a kid and you just kept chewing but it would never break down and you eventually had to swallow. Then the chef gave us some grade A meat, the best he had in the restaurant. It literally melted in your mouth. One city over from us was Kobe. Kobe beef is the most famous and expensive beef in Japan. They feed their cows beer with the grain and they massage the cows so that the fat in the cow gets evenly distributed throughout the meat. Well, his best meat looked similar to that and tasted wonderful. After it was all said and done, I think I ate around kilo of meat(not quite a kilo but probably about 24 ounces of pure cow. Oh how I have missed meat in huge portions.

We also ate Takoyaki (Octopus in a battered ball), Sukiyaki (steam beef and vegetables), Gyoza, Fried chicken, Spring rolls and many other things. The amazing thing was these were all home made by his Mom. I think I gained a lot of weight in the last 2 weeks. In the last 14 days I think I have eaten about 12 Christmas size dinners. Now that is a holiday feast.

In the end we had a great time traveling, we all gained weight, visited Costco, and are extremely tired.