The first stop is a 3 hour train ride to Tokushima where we checked our bags into the hotel and then we hopped on a 20 minute subway trip to Hanoura. The day is very much a blur, however, we spent time with both sets of families. Some of the highlights!
1) The Nakata family owns and operates an excellent Udon noodle restaurant. The kids and I got to learn how to make the noodles! Before we got our Udon lesson, we feasted on Udon. By far the best noodle soup broth I've ever had. The noodles were obviously fresh and made by hand on-site. We met a few of the family at the restaurant including two cute kids that are distant relatives. The boy wants to be Ichiro and play baseball and the girl is a rhythm gymnast. Both are close to Brandon's age.
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| Murayama and Ayano. Ayano was really adorable. |
If you are curious about the Udon adventure, I'll be posting something later on my Food blog:
2) After lunch, we drove a short ways outside of town and visited a sacred area on a hill overlooking the city. The entire mountainside seemed to be covered with Shinto and Buddhist shrines. Each shrine seemed to have a different purpose. Health, luck, money, etc... It certainly seems like a lot to keep track of! Some photos of the shrines and the countryside.
3) After our hike, we headed to the Goto's restaurant to relax. The Goto's used to run the most prestigious restaurant/hotel in Hanoura. I kept hearing how the restaurant is always busy and how they are well-known in the area for their sushi. After watching some sumo on tv while we relaxed, guests started to trickle in. I believe 14 or 15 people joined us in total and we sat down to an absolute sushi feast like no other. I hope the photos do it justice. I'll post a more detailed review in my food blog but here are a couple of pictures of the spread. Brandon ate like a champ and downed just about everything I put in front of him including a lot of raw fish items, bbq'd eggplant, clams, abalone, shrimp and much more. Mattie had just woken up from a nap and he can be a real pain when he's pulled out of REM. He didn't warm back up again until after the dinner and wasn't feeling at all experimental. On top of that, he has had a couple of food allergy breakouts in the past and my mom and I are trying to keep him away from the raw stuff and any shellfish. I'm kind of excited about posting these photos because my sister is gonna see them and be super jealous and I'm a little evil about that because I really wanted her to come.
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| Various tuna's, something that looked like red snapper and abalone sashimi |
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| I'm still full from eating this and looking at it again is making my mouth water. The sashimi was the freshest I've had. The red snapper appears whole but was already cut-up into bite-sized sashimi. |
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| I've never seen so many different things on one plate. I doubt any of my non-asian friends could even guess what half of these things are! The clams were ridiculously fresh and good. |
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| Brandon eating a clam |
4) After the meal, we talked for a while. I'm not sure if the Japanese dislike talking politics at the table but the conversation was mostly family stuff and a brief conversation about the boy who just graduated high school potentially doing a summer internship in the US when he's in college. I wanted to see what the thought of Obama but they didn't bite :) The grandmother who sat in front of me was pretty funny. Even though we didn't understand each other at all, we were able to make each other laugh the entire meal. I could tell whenever her 12 year old granddaughter would speak, she would rip into her playfully. My mom translated a couple of the wisecracks afterwards. We did manage to snap one family photo minus Michael who was taking the photo.
All in all, another great day of visiting family I have never seen before and some great food. I'm still blown away by the hospitality of the Japanese people. This experience is continuing to change me and my views on the world.
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