ThinkTwisted

Oh man, I forgot to mention that last night when eating yakiniku, the Japanese member insisted we try diaphragm. I believe it was from cow. It looked bad when it came out, but the taste was very good. It was very fatty and kind of chewy, but the flavor was excellent.

For lunch today I had one of the Japanese dishes, it was again fried chicken, but not like yesterday’s chunks. It was okay, but I am getting tired of fried foods. We also had rice, cold mashed potatoes, some green mixed with daikon in a peanut sauce, and seaweed soup. The potatoes and greens were both good, the soup was not.

We left work around 330 because we had to catch a train to Utsunomiya. We rode the train back from work to Hon-Kawagoe, picked up our luggage, which we checked at the front desk that morning, and rushed off to Kawagoe (different train station). It was a very brisk walk has we only had a few minutes to get to the station, get our ticket, and make it to the train platform. It involved going up a large flight of stairs into the station (while dragging our suitcases), getting a ticket and through the turnsytles and down another flight of stairs to the train platform. We made it with about a minute to spare.

We rode that train to Omiya, where we got off, and then had to buy another ticket to get on the bullet train to Utsunomiya. After purchasing our tickets, it was another walk up a very, very large flight of stairs to the train platform. If you ever visit Japan and plan to visit multiple cities, make sure you pack light. Many train stations have large flights of stairs and no or limited elevators/escalators. You often cannot afford to wait on them if you are trying to catch a specific train. The trains do not wait for you. They are famous for being incredibly punctual, and they are.

The bullet train was a cool experience. Americans should be jealous of it, we could never have something so nice. There are many things here in Japan that simply would not work in the US. The trains use Philips and flat head screws for everything, have real fabric seats, and exposed florescent light bulbs; all of these things would be disassembled, shredded and broken in the US. People are very polite when they are travelling on the trains. We take the train every day, at least twice a day. People turn their phones on silent and do not answer when on the train. Conversations are kept very quiet between the people involved. I have only heard a phone ring once while on the train and it was quickly silenced.

Anyway, back to the bullet train. When pulling into the station, it is very sleek and beautiful machine, and very quiet. You only hear a whoosh of air and a few squeals as the brakes activate. The train has two seats on the left side of the cabin and three on the right. They are very cushy and comfortable. The cabin is very quiet while the train is running. It took us a little over 20 minutes to reach our destination, approximately 50 miles away.

The Utsunomiya train station is very large; it has many restaurants and stores in it. There is an entrance directly to a shopping mall. Our hotel, Hotel R-Metz is just a few minutes’ walk down from the station. The R-Metz is very nice, very modern. Unfortunately, for our first two nights they only had smoking rooms available, so we will be stinky. For dinner, we want to a gyouza shop in the hotel. Utsunomiya is known for their gyouza, it is believed to be where the dish originated. The shop in our hotel is the most famous and best in Japan. It was very good and I ate too much. Notice in the photos, the size of the water (the coin in the photo is about the size of a quarter), and the size of the “salad.” I was impressed by the ice cubes in the water. They were nearly perfect rectangles and crystal clear. We joked that they may be hand craved like everything else in Japan.

Our hotel has coin laundry, so I have no need to wander the streets for hours asking random people where I can wash my dirties! The cost is 300 yen (about 3.60USD) to wash and 100 yen for 30 minutes in the dryer (1.20USD, took two cycles). The soap is included and already piped into the machine. We were a little confused, the pictures on the machine say to put your money in, push a button, then load your clothes. We put our money in, and water started spraying into the tub, so we hit the button and the water stopped. We are unclear as to why this is, however we loaded and closed the lid and the water spray started again. Not sure what the deal is, but our clothes came out clean!