Nik's Travels in Japan

Some good friends from college (yes, more) came to visit us in the last few weeks.  One of them also had the chance to travel around Japan for a week or so.  I might not have blogged this particular visit, as not too much that was too special went down in Kanazawa, but he also got some pretty cool pictures of his travels around the country and I thought some people would want to have a look.  For one, he took some pictures of just regular Japan, which we generally don't, since regular Japan looks regular to us.  Two, he got some cool pictures of things we haven't seen yet and some very nice ones of some things we have. There are more pictures on Flickr, as well.

 Our friends (they're brothers) met up in Tokyo and took the train to Kanazawa, where we met them at the station.

 It was about lunchtime so we went to the fish market for some sushi.  Here he wants to buy a stick of something unidentified, which turned out to be eel.

 Probably the little end bits they trimmed off fillets or something - tastes like eel, which tastes good.

 Sea snails however, generally do not taste good in my experience.  This is from just walking through the market.

 In front of the sushi place.

 I believe the menu called it arkfish...I think it was maybe some kind of large clam.  Tasty but expensive.

 Ana having a roe roll.

 One of the brothers especially wanted to eat the things foreigners usually take a pass on.

 Half crab, half crab guts.  Edible, but just the crab would be better.

 He likes it all anyway. 

 They both do.  Bastards.

 After lunch we went to Kenroku-en, which we haven't been to that often with the big camera.  The light was tricky but we got some interesting pictures.  The ropes to hold the branches against the snow were already up.

 Fall foliage was somewhat in evidence.

 After Kenroku'en they checked out some of the nearby shops and then we stopped for green tea and bean paste sweets. 

 Ana explained that one of the earlier steps in matcha drinking is appreciating the mug it comes in.

 After the first Saturday, one of the brothers needed to be at a conference halfway across the country, so the two of them headed out that way to see Hiroshima and Miyajima.  One went on to the conference, and the other slept at our place and adventured in Japan for a while.  He usually came back for dinner time, so we went out for grilled meat on a stick one night and ramen another night, as here.

 He took some pictures of ordinary Japan stuff.  This is the highway up behind our apartment.

 We probably wouldn't have taken a picture of a post box either

 The river between us and downtown Kanazawa

 One of the bigger intersections downtown

 After being stalled by a derailed train (he wasn't on it) one day, the next he made it down to Osaka where he took this awesome picture on the Osaka Castle ground.

 Osaka Castle from across one of the moats

 View of Osaka from the top of the castle

 Closer view of the castle

 He also visited Kyoto, site of the Golden Pavilion

 For one dinner when we were here, we gathered up some more Japanese language and food friends of ours to guide us and went out to a restaurant specializing in local delicacies.  Here is another rendition of crab on crab guts.  Apparently, some crab guts have a more delicate flavor than others because these weren't bad.

 These are pressed and fermented fish and radish cakes, which should be awful but were actually quite good.

 Fried buckwheat noodle balls - tasted fried, not like noodles

 For the end of his trip, our friend headed out to Hakone, where he stayed at an extremely old and old-fashioned hot springs resort, which was the style he asked for.  Apparently the old ones have good views, as this is the view from his room.

 The Hakone ropeway has views of Fuji in clear weather but he had a more mysterious, closed in vibe going on

 The pictures look pretty cool, and we are planning to actually go to Hakone ourselves in a few weeks, so maybe we'll be able to get Fuji pictures then.

 After the ropeway, they have "pirate ships" to take you across a lake.

 The clouds coming off the mountains definitely gave this a creepy, mysterious look

 He specifically wanted fish for breakfast, so I'm glad my selection of hotel came through in that respect

 He wrapped it up with some more time in Tokyo, including a stop at our favorite whiskey bar.  He failed to get lost, in defiance of my instructions to have carefully planned directions.  I have no idea how he actually managed this.

Hope you enjoyed looking at the pictures, and we'll have more stuff that we ourselves actually did soon.  Have to make the most of the remaining time here.