Ok, let's see, where were we?.... Ah yes. The Castle tour was over and we just watched the sword masters practice. We then met up with my grandfather's best friend, Matsutane-san. He is 93 years old, still runs his accounting business and serves as president and exercises every day. I asked him what the secret was and the only answer I got was that every morning he showers in cold water and massages himself ::blink:: That can't be it, right??? Anyway, Matsutane-san was very impressive to meet.
Lunch was fantastic. There will not be many other opportunities in my life to sit in a real Japanese home eating sushi with friends and family. I wasn't brave enough to try uni (sea urchin) yet again but I swear I will try it for the first time once I'm back on vacation. Too many people whose palettes I greatly respect swear that it is one of their favorite things in the world. The kids sat at a separate table and were fairly independent, including Mastutane-san's great grandson (3) and great grand-daughter (6). Asian kids are so damn cute and these two kids were not the exception by any means.
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| Cuteness |
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| Can you guess the Japanese kids from the American kids? hint - check out how they sit... |
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| Tea, Sake, and Miso soup with Clams |
After lunch, we say our goodbyes. Brandon makes us all proud by voluntarily saying "O genki de" which translates to "stay healthy" but more loosely like politely saying, see you later. Instead of saying anything, Mattie just goes in for the real thing and gives Hiroshi a big American hug. Hiroshi wasn't actually done with us though as he took us to a coffee shop for dessert, coffee and then to the local radio station he owns around the corner. We arrived just before his 4 PM DJ's went to work. Mattie had a great time entertaining the female personality through the soundproof glass as she laughed and talked about him on the air. He snapped about 20 pictures of the two dj's working but here is the only one that I was able to get:
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| 79.7 FM - On the air! |
We subway'd back to the hotel and went into the local department store to try to find dinner. I use the term department store loosely since it houses more restaurants than most small cities. There were literally 3 floors with about 10 full-service restaurants on each floor. We finally find one that we think has something we all will like and settle in. All of us get Soba noodles except Brandon who gets a fried rice dumpling and shares some shrimp tempura with me. Soba is a buckwheat noodle that's much healthier to eat than the noodles we eat back home. Very light and really good! Mattie swears that he has true soba noodles all the time back home but I'm calling him out with Mom when I get the chance.
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| My first bowl of soba noodles. With bamboo and seaweed. |
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| Mattie pretending that he's good with chopsticks. Still working on it! |
Our dessert was sample pieces of the delicious rolls we bought so that we could decide what to buy for our bus ride tomorrow. All were great! Impressed that Brandon really enjoys Japanese food. Mattie ate soba that is cold for the first time! Another item to note is that Kishiwada is now being shown all over Japan in a daily soap-opera that lasts about 46 weeks. It's almost near the end. The restaurant scenes are filed at the restaurant you see above (the garden). Kishiwada is also known for their annual festival where they push and pull a big "cart" with drummers all over the city. Each local community participate in this event during the three-day festival. The reason? In the old days, this is the only time the "commoners" were allowed inside the castle. So it was important for everyone to join in. A lot of drumming, pushing/pulling, and great costumes. The boys are taking home two fans with pictures of this festival.
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