Today the weather was a bit cooler, 25º instead of 30º, like a Wellington summer but without the wind, or any cool breeze to speak of. The thing about Japan is it’s often just as hot in the shade as in the sun.
Today’s eating started with a brunch of delicious yakisoba, soba noodles fried with cabbage, sauce, meat, and anything else you feel like, sprinkled with aonori seaweed and a bit of pepper. Perfect easy and delicious food.
After starting the days eating with that I felt like I needed some kind of exercise to earn my next meal. Usually that would be a good moment to put on some boxing gloves and go a few rounds with a tree or something else that doesn’t hit back, or do a circuit at the gym with my trainer, but neither of those are here in Japan so I decided going for a run was somehow a good idea. It was probably the world’s slowest 2km, at 16 minutes per km but by the end of it I was ready to collapse! I need to learn to take a bigger bottle of water or ration what I have better. By the time I got half way through I’d drunk it all so on the way back there was not a drop to drink. By the time I was home I may as well of been running through the Sahara for days for all I knew. The slight breeze when I set out was also a cunning deception, by the time I got back the sun was shining bright and the air was painfully still.
That was it for my afternoon. Once I got in the door and downed a couple of cold drinks, all I did for the next two hours was fall asleep on the couch under the AC. We’ll see if it gets any easier to run next time. Tomorrow’s probably an exercise rest day though.
This evening we’ve had a great time with Naoko’s Uncle, Aunt, and cousins. It was a big feast at home. Fried and crumbed prawns, crab, more Hokkaido raw scallops, crispy noodle salad, harusame, then various souvenir snacks for first desserts. Not to mention somehow the souvenir bottle of Highland Park Whisky that Naoko’s dad got seems to have evaporated. Mysterious things happen when family are around. Great times though. See the photos at the end for some pictures of dinner. Two tables stacked with food. The crab brains were delicious.
After dinner we walked the relatives to the train station and grabbed a second dessert and more snacks from the convenience store. Yay for 24 hour Family Mart’s (just like your average convenience store only filled with strange and delicious things that you’ll never get back home.)
Almost time to sleep so we can do it all again tomorrow with Naoko’s mums side of the family. I think we’re going to eat out for dinner tomorrow so there may be even more food than today, I’ll make sure to get photos of the best stuff.
Oyasumi! (Good night! )
The two tables of food pictured below:
