Nature park and earthquake

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We promptly dropped our stuff and hurried on out to Tsurugajo Castle where we toured the grounds and admired the vista from the top of the castle. On our first night here, we decided to hunt out a place to eat local food. It seemed everywhere was closed, so it limited our selection.

In frustration we stopped with hunger pangs into a mom and pop Sushi place. No english speaking people or menus with pictures or in English. After some finger pointing at some Sashimi on the glassed in counter, we were able to get a dish of Sashimi and an order of Saki. We watched Sumo wrestling while we ate! How good is that!

We were still hungary, so we left. Lol. Hit up another place that was abit more to our liking. We had a BBQed squid which was amazingly tender and tasty as well as some more seafood and Saki. MMMM

Next day we took a train to the Urabandai Area, at the foot of Mount Bandai, where there is this famous pond in the foothills of a resort area. Lots of nature related scenery and a picturesque pathway where we were able to walk with the fishes. YES, the fish swam beside us in a leisurely way and were not skittish at all. The pond was actually a lake. Quite large. I do not know why they call it a pond. The fish had these sucker like mouths that seemed like they ate only algae type food. It was like they were pronouncing the letter "O" all the time. I could touch the fish.

By the end of the day we stopped at a cantina and tried a bean popsicle which came on a plate of three, with a warm hoisen type sauce spread over them. MMMMM Good.

Bedtime: Wow!!! What was that? Shake, shake , shake, rumble, rattle and role......... 30-60 secs.... time stands still when you are in an earthquake. It was sureal. It just seemed to go on and on. Did I dream it. No, when I awoke the wife said she experienced it as well. I looked out the window in the morning and noticed a dusty haze. So we have been in a Typhoon and a 5.8 earthquake while in Japan.

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