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Published: August 29th 2009
Sharing a Bottle of Wine
my small glass on the left compared to my aunt's glass on the right...Her flight was due to land at 16:20, so my landlady told me to come down to her cafe for 15:50 and if she wasn't busy she'd take me, otherwise she'd call a taxi for me. So I did some final tidying and my landlady called me around 15:30 to say she was free to take me to the airport. So I went downstairs and she drove me the 10-15 minutes and dropped me off. I had quite a bit of time to kill, so I ended up sitting on a seat reading one of the books that Nina had left. Eventually Sakko arrived, and we went to the Toyota desk to pick up the rental car she'd arranged. It was a bit of a drive away so we jumped into a van with some other people to the car lot. After a few minutes, we were off - woohoo! I didn't realise how bad her driving would be - boo. I later discovered that it was just as bad in 2005 when Cec and I came to Japan and she rented a car to take us round to the caves and lakes. I must have blocked it out of
my memory, thankfully.
It took so long to get the satnav to work, but we got it eventually and managed to get home in one piece. After settling in as much as she could with just one small rucksack, we went downstairs to grab some food. It's not a proper restaurant, so there wasn't that much choice, and we both ended up getting a curry - she got prawn, I had beef. It was tasty. Mine was really sweet, like there were sultanas in it. Maybe there were. And it came with a bowl of lettuce-cucumber-tomato-salad with some sort of salad dressing AND fruit salad on top. Weird. Interesting. But weird. While we were there, my landlady told us about the Monet Garden in Aki city, which is supposed to be nice in the morning.
After we finished, we walked to Value, where we got a can of beer for her, a bottle of Japanese wine to share, and some snacks and omiyage for her to take back to Tokyo. We went back to the flat and drank while trying Katsuo no Tataki (Kochi's specialty) and talking to my mum on Skype.
Monday Early start - alarm
Oosugi
supposedly the tallest tree in japan went off at 06:00!! I got ready to leave for 07:00, but we didn't leave til later - I could've had more sleep, dammit! We got into the rental car and spent another 15 minutes or so trying to get our destination up. We found it eventually and were on our way to Oboke - woohoo! On the way were super windy narrow mountain roads, which with her driving were ridonculousy scary. But I tried not to think about it and took photos of some lovely lilies on the way. We stopped off at a "street station" and paid a couple hundred yen to check out the supposedly biggest tree in Japan, although I was informed that there's a bigger one elsewhere, but as it was found after this one, this one still had the sign up claiming to be the biggest one. Whether that's true or not, who knows...
We then passed through Koboke, where we ate some soba and had a really nice view of mountains, rivers, clear sky, and general beauty. We saw a poster in the visitors' centre for a rope bridge, which is apparently one of the 3 rare bridges in Japan, and decided
to go there. It cost JPY 300 to park and JPY 500 to cross the bridge. It was a little scary not because I thought I was going to fall - the gaps were too small - but because I was holding my mobile in my hand taking photos, with no strap to keep it from falling. I also had no pockets to put my hanky that I was using as my phone case into. But I managed to get across to the other side without any fatalities. We then walked a few metres down the road to a waterfall. Very thin. And a bit small to swim in, so not as breathtaking as the ones we saw in Thailand.
On the way back to the car, we stopped off at one of the many stalls selling fish-on-a-stick. We got one each of Amego and Ayu. I preferred the Amego - first time I've eaten fish on a stick, and I enjoyed it muchly. Would totally get it again - yummers! We then made our way to Kompirasan - a shrine at the top of 1,368 stairs.
When we got there, we parked the car and I got
Koboke Cafe
the view while we ate soba some yuzu juice for the journey. After about 100 or so stairs, we reached a clearing, where there was an old school building that you had to pay to go inside and see. We thought it was the end and were a little disappointed that it was so short, but then I spotted some more stairs in the opposite direction. So we went up those and after another few hundred stairs, we got to another levelled out clearing with a shrine and a lookout point. It looked like the peak,but then there was a sign indicating it wasn't the end. It was a teasing neverending stream of steps. So we trooped on and eventually we got to a place where there was a sign saying it was 200 metres to the end. She said "another 20 seconds" - huh?? It was a reference to Usain Bolt's record of 19.30 seconds. Needless to say, it took us a lot longer than 20 seconds. We finally reached the top, where there was a beautiful view, a couple of images chipped into the stone high up, and of course the shrine. There were a few abu (not sure the English word), which were
annoyingly flying around us as we made our way down. The journey back was much easier. When we got to the bottom, we saw some stalls selling Kompirasan candy. They came in boxes of 6 or 12 packets, with a little hammer to break the candy into pieces. Omoshiroi!!! So I got a box for the teachers' office.
On the way to the car, we passed a few places selling beer, and she seems to really love her beer! So I said I could drive to the hotel if she wanted to drink. We stopped off at a place selling some local beer, and she downed it in about 10 seconds! As I was driving to Takamatsu, we stopped off at a convenience store to get her some more beer. She drank 2 cans in a rather short space of time, and had some snacks,while saying "sweetie, salty" over and over again, referring to the sweet and salty tastes of her snacks. It seemed like a long time before we got to the hotel, but we made it there - woohoo! I so have to get used to looking up for the traffic lights - I kept looking to
the sides, and I had to brake hard a couple of times because I forgot they were on top. Oopsie. But at least the rest of my driving wasn't scary...! I enjoyed driving too, even though it was a crappy little Vitz.
We reached Hotel Okura, where I spoke to my uncle in Toyama on the phone, who passed me onto my cousin, because he was too drunk to talk to me. So I spoke to her and arranged to speak to her again later, as my aunt was bugging me to check in! We checked in, staying in room 806, and once we dropped off our bags, we went in search for some food. She asked the receptionist where we could get some nice fish, so she gave us a map and told us of 2 places. The nearest one she said was a 15 minute walk or so. Apparently there's no parking in the town, so we had to walk. We started on our way, and I tried to take us one way in which the receptionist had pointed, but she had the map and said it was "this way". So I followed her and we walked
Toyota Vitz
the car i drove for about 25 minutes before asking a man on a bicycle where we were. He said we'd come the wrong direction - I KNEW IT, she had the map the wrong way round! I should've known really, what with her beer ingestion. Dagnamit, I should've stood my ground! We ended up walking back towards the hotel and jumped in a taxi to take us the rest of the way. She spoke to the driver about which restaurant was better and we ended up going to the farther one, because the fish and seafood are as fresh as can be - they're in tanks at the front of the restaurant! So we arrived and saw a load of tubs with squid and crabs etc, and eventually got seated at a table. While I was deciding on what drink to have, she ordered some squid without me realising. When it came, it was so fresh that when she touched it, it moved! It was okay, but I wouldn't order it again myself. The rest of the squid was grilled in salt. She also ordered some katsuo no tataki, sanma, and ise ebi - it was still moving on the plate while its
Sashimi
it was demolished so quickly i didn't get any before snaps insides were next to it!!!!!!!! And then it was made into soup. Man, talk about torture! But I ate it all the same. I don't think I've ever had such fresh sashimi! And it all came to JPY 14,000, which apparently is cheap for what it was. We got a taxi back to the hotel, where I was way too tired to have a shower and went to bed.
Tuesday Another early start, although woke up at 06:45 and got ready for breakfast. It was a business hotel, so large tables of people wearing suits. The breakfast consisted of:
Sausage (Japanese style), salmon, egg, ketchup;
Rice, natto;
Fresh fruit, spaghetti salad;
Canned fruit, bread rolls;
Udon noodles;
And a load of other stuff I didn't even touch. So much food!
My first round was canned fruit (I didn't see the fresh fruit til later), egg, salmon, bread roll, and water. My second round was spaghetti salad, rice and natto, and 2 more bread rolls. I then tried some lemon tea - too sweet. My third round was 5 slices of fresh pineapple - YUM! I then had some Calpis to clean my insides. I found out then that
Breakfast
how can one woman eat so much?!?! it contains good bacteria, much like Yakult, so it's supposed to be good for you. Go Calpis!
When we got back to the room, we both emptied our bowels, packed, and checked out. First stop - Naruto to check out the uzu (whirlpool). It took a while to get there, but we made it, and paid JPY 500 each to walk along a bridge over the sea. Unfortunately we'd gone at the wrong time, so we didn't get to see any whirlpools =( On that day, the chart said the afternoon was best, but we didn't have time to wait, as her flight was at 17:00. Poo sticks. It was still a nice view.
We left to drive back to Kochi on the expressway due to our time limit. We stopped on the way at a service station to get some food. I was looking at the menu and decided on a katsu curry, but when we looked around, EVERYONE was eating sanuki udon. So I changed my mind and joined in with the crowd. SO glad I did - not only was the process really fun, it was really tasty =D It's all self service (see photos
Naruto
the sea below below):
1) Pick up a bowl of noodles
2) Heat it up in the hot water
3) Select any tempura or oden
4) Get some spring onion/daikon/garnishing
5) Pay
6) Fill the bowl with soup from the dispenser
7) Pick up chopsticks
8) Help yourself to water
Awesome-o!! I had so much fun, I was tempted to do it again, but I didn't want to waste food...
We then got back onto the road and made it back home in one piece - yay! We stopped off at Value supermarket on the way and I got some money out, and she got some more omiyage, as she'd eaten a packet that she'd bought the other day. I spoke to my cousin again, who told me that I sound exactly like my mum and aunt when I talk!! Wasn't quite sure how to take that... I made some vague plans to go to Toyama in September to see my family.
It was soon time to go to the airport, so I went with her in the rental car and we sat in a restaurant while we waited the hour for her flight. She had some more local beer,
as did I, and we ate some chicken skin and fish tempura. Nice. It was then time for her to go through the gate, so we left and I saw her go through the tunnel.... All in all a fantastic couple of days, albeit very tiring. All I need to do now is sleep...
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ceceeeeeeeely
non-member comment
It was 2001!!! 9/11 remember? 9/11...
Haha, was the bridge one of the 3 rarest japanese bridges in all of japan? tee hee. I love Sakko. But I don't like the sound of live fish without important bits. yuk. reminds me of crab. AHEM LUCIELLA. And you better be learning how to make good Udon.. no more of this 'my mum makes...' nonsense. I want 'Luciella makes yummy food for Cec...' xxx