Sushi

I've gotten very lazy about my blogging but it just occurred to me that this is a great way to capture our memories of Japan so that we can remember them later. Now that I have a selfish motive, I'm going to try to get more consistent about it! :)

As you may have guessed, sushi is extremely popular in Japan. Our local grocery store has a huge sushi section.

Supermarket Sushi

Some of this is already prepared in rolls. Rolls are made up different ingredients wrapped in rice and then in seaweed. Usually they are sliced into round pieces about an inch thick. Nigiri is a type of sushi where the ingredients are instead laid over a small ball of vinegared rice. Sashimi style sushi is just the raw fish itself.

In the States we usually think of sushi as raw fish. The Japanese don't have as narrow a definition as we do. Sushi is made out of scrambled egg (tomago), beef, pork, shrimp/egg/tuna salad, cooked shrimp or crab, as well as raw fish and fish eggs. We've gotten pretty brave about trying the various kinds but we all still shy away from the things we can't identify...especially if they look slimy!

Our favorite sushi restaurant

In fact, after church most Sundays we head to our favorite Sushi-go-round restaurant for lunch. Sushi-go-round or conveyor belt sushi is our nickname for the type of restaurant where the customers sit in large booths and the food rides through the restaurant on a big conveyor belt.

A booth at the sushi restaurant. The computer for ordering is where the #14 is. The rest of the signs are the various types of sushi they have

You can either pick something that looks good right off the conveyor belt or you can order something specific using the computer screen at each table.

Sushi riding by on the conveyor belt

They send the special orders out along the conveyor belt too, but they are placed in certain dishes that designate them as special orders. When the order gets to your table, the computer chimes and a little animated character appears to let you know that it is your food.

Dirty dish shoot

When you are finished with your plates, you send them through a little shoot at the side of the table. At the restaurant we go to, for every 5 plates you send through the shoot you get a chance to win a tiny prize. The animated character appears on your screen and either fishes or has a sumo wrestling match. If he wins, you get a prize. Since we usually get enough for 3 or 4 chances, we generally get at least one prize each time we go!

Fishing game

Even the kids love going to the sushi-go-round! The girls have become fans of cucumber rolls and tomago (scrambled egg). Our son usually sticks to the fruit and desserts! Matt loves it because not only can he get sushi but each plate only costs about $1.20, so it's cheap too!

Cantaloupe

Vanilla pudding parfait

I have to say, I never thought my family's  favorite Sunday lunch spot would be a sushi restaurant!

Fall Break in Okinawa (Last Week in October 2010)

We spent the kids fall break from school in Okinawa, Japan. Okinawa is the southern most prefecture in Japan and is made up of many small islands. The capital of the prefecture is on Okinawa Island (just to make things confusing). Okinawa has a reputation for being the "Hawaii of Japan", so we thought we'd take the opportunity to explore.
It was a quick 2 hour flight from Osaka to Okinawa but it was like going to a whole different country. Okinawa hosts a huge American military presence. In fact, the American military bases take up about 20% of all the land on Okinawa Island. We saw lots of American military personnel and planes at the airport. More importantly, they had many more American food chains than Osaka does! That sounds terrible, but we definitely get cravings for American food. There is even an town on the island called American Village.
We stayed at a gorgeous Marriott resort that was one of the most kid-friendly hotels I've ever seen. The drive from the airport took about 2 hours, so we got there after dark but we were very impressed by the hotel interior. 



We decided to splurge a bit and get one of the Dolphin rooms. These rooms were completely tricked out for kids.

 
They even came with lots of dolphin themed accessories. The bathroom and sitting room were also done in a dolphin motif. However, the connecting parent room was not as nice. It was a decent size for a Japanese hotel room but it was very plainly decorated and had 2 twin size beds that were so hard that when Nate tried to bounce on one he almost bruised his butt!
The next morning we explored the resort. It was a beautiful day and we were so impressed!

The outside of the resort

Breakfast on the patio

The beach area for the resort. It was just this small inlet, but it was gorgeous.

Dragon boat heading out for a tour

Playing in the water

Daddy and his girls

Exploring the beach

Feeding the dolphins

Dolphin doing tricks

Laura with one of the Okinawan guardian statues

We signed up for a family swim with dolphins and a snorkeling boat tour for the next day. Then we went to the American Village for lunch.

Lunch at Tony Romas

The girls had no idea who Betty Boop is!

We spent the rest of the day playing at the beach and in the pool. It was the best day of the trip!
Unfortunately, all of our plans for the following day were cancelled because of high winds and rain.

Beach closed because of high winds

 Instead we decided to go to the Okinawa Aquarium which has an excellent reputation. It turned into quite an adventure! We plugged the aquarium phone number into our fancy Japanese GPS and took off for the 90 minute drive to the aquarium. When we got there we found that we had to turn off the main road and head up a steep hill. I was surprised that the sign at the bottom was all in Japanese, since it was supposed to be a major tourist attraction but in Japan, you never know. We drove for about 1.5 miles up this hill. The track was fairly narrow, with huge drainage ditches on either side. It really wasn't what I expected at all. Right as the road completely gave out and ended in a grassy track the GPS announced we were there. Matt and I were pretty panicked. The road was too narrow and the drainage ditches to wide to turn the car around and we had no idea how would manage to call for help, since we don't speak the language and we didn't actually know where we were. Matt managed to back the car down hill for about 1/2 mile where we found a small driveway leading to nothing. However, it was wide enough for us to turn around! 
About 45 minutes later we finally arrived at the aquarium. It was (almost) worth the drive! It was also very visible and had lots of English signage. The grounds were gorgeous.

It was cool and windy when we got there and the girls were dressed for summer

The grounds were really beautiful with lots of marine-shaped topiary

Standing on a manta ray shaped topiary

Even though they were cold, the kids couldn't resist this mist generator

Outside of the Aquarium

Manatees

Petting starfish

Looking in the absolutely huge tank

Spider crab

Inside the mouth of a shark skull

One of the whale sharks that the aquarium is famous for

Bottom of a manta ray

My three little fish

We had a great time!
The following day it started pouring rain. Luckily, the resort had an indoor pool with two water slides. The kids had a blast and must have gone down each slide over 100 times. I was pretty pouty that I missed my chance to swim with the dolphins though.

The next morning we headed back to Kobe just ahead of a typhoon. We found out later that they closed the airport just a few hours after we left!


Nara  
October 13, 2010
A couple of weekends ago the we decided to take a family trip to Nara. It is a medium-size city that is about an hour away from Kobe. It is a very popular tourist site in Japan. It was the first permanent capital of Japan. It is famous for its temples and shrines, particularly the Diabutsu, or Great Buddha. It is also known for the sacred deer that roam the park that surrounds the Todai-ji (the temple that houses the Great Buddha).

The Nara tourist symbol - a little antler headed guy that we saw everywhere!

A Shinto shrine we passed on the way to the temple

There are many shrines and temples in Nara and we passed several as we walked from the car to the park.

Stone lantern with deer motif

Once we reached the park, the first thing we saw were the famous deer. They were everywhere. Little stands selling deer food were located all along the path. However, we were warned in advance, not to feed them. Although tame, they are very aggressive when it comes to food! Although they were originally disappointed, the kids were just as happy once they saw the deer in action! There are about 1200 deer which freely roam the park. In ancient times they were considered messengers of the gods. Today they have the status of National Treasures.

Laura and Katie with a sacred deer.

TheTodai-ji  temple itself was extremely impressive! It consists of several gates and buildings and beautiful grounds. The most impressive building was the Daibutsu-den, where the Great Buddha is kept. The pictures don't do the size of it justice. It was immense!

Outside Daibutsu-den Hall,the largest wooden building in the world!

A closer look at the building, you can kind of get a sense of the scale.

Inside the temple was the Daibutsu. He is one of the largest bronze figures in the world and is about 1300 years old. It is just over 52 feet tall. Historians believe that it was originally built as a charm against smallpox.

Buddha - He was immense, the picture doesn't do him justice!

 Behind the statue of the Buddha is a wooden column with a hole at the base. The tradition is that those who squeeze through the hole, which is the exact size of one of the Great Buddha's nostrils, are ensured enlightenment. Matt and I didn't attempt it, but all of the kids should be in good shape!

Laura ensuring her path to enlightenment

 The statues below were also in the same temple as the Great Buddha. Each of them was colossal and were amazing examples of carving.

Buddhavista to the side of the main statue

Guardian of the Temple

For lunch we stopped at a cute little French bistro. Nathan decided to branch out and instead of his usual  white rice and Coke, he had crepes covered in caramel sauce and ice cream. It's amazing how he's so willing to try new sweets when he's so picky about every other kind of food!

Getting a ride back to the car from daddy

Walking back to the car we passed a big deer in the middle of the city streets. I guess he escaped from the park. I was kind of shocked (and didn't get my camera out in time) but everyone else on the street just acted as though it was no big deal!

Japanese flags flying in the breeze, it still surprises me to see these, some how I still expect them to be American flags!