Picture Perfect Memories

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小田原, Odawara

An hour by train from our hotel brought us to the charming town of Odawara. Famed for its famous Castle (小田原城), this place is extremely lovely every spring when the sakuras within the castle grounds are in full bloom. And for 2 weeks, fellow Japanese would gather their picnic mats under the sakura trees to admire the beauty from Mother nature. I’m impressed that despite a scarcity of waste bins, no rubbish would be “conveniently” left behind after the picnickers have left!

I’ve only seen sakuras on TV and on postcards. To be able to see them happening right before our every eyes was great. J started collecting the flower petals and I was taking picture perfect memories of them. Nearby, the elephants and the red face monkeys were also capturing our attention.

Lunch was a simple fare of sweet potatos and red bean fish. While not exactly sumptuous, they tasted great as picnic snacks.

At the Hotoku Ninomiya-Jinja Shrine, we were lucky to witness a traditional wedding procession. As the ceremony was carried out in a somber fashion and the couple dressed in black and white, we were unable to tell that this was supposed to be a happy occasion until after quite some time.

Our evening train brought us back to the city of Yokohama where we were greeted by the Giant Ferris Wheel that dominated the city’s skyline. Dinner was a simple fare of healthy seafood ramen set within the nostalgic Red Brick Warehouses next to the port.

Graving for more ramen brought us to a small eatery close to our hotel. Ordering required some effort as we had to match the words on the display window with the menu on hand. There were no pictures of the ramen on the menu. Mission completed ~ we were rewarded with a hot bowl of ramen as we braced ourselves for the cold night of Day 2.

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Comments

[jon marc]

red bean fish - taiyaki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiyaki