Trip Pictures #2

Update: blogger stopped being stupid, so I was able to put up explanations of the pictures. The ketchup and mustard face was my doing, by the way.

 

This is us eating takoyaki in Osaka.  Osaka has two foods that it is supposedly famous for, takoyaki and okonomiyaki.  Takoyaki is basically fried dough balls that have octopus (among other things) in them.  This place was really good takoyaki.  Okonomiyaki is basically cabbage pancakes, but actually Hiroshima style is better.

 

We had a barbecue with some of Mie's friends at her friend's family's house, which was pretty delightful.  Here's me eating something, probably meat.  It was very bright out, so that's why I was squinting.

 

Here's a picture of Mie's mom and me eating, mostly sashimi, but also some cooked fish and whatnot. That guy in the background is from some other prefecture and was of course interested in what the gaijin was doing in this little izakaya way out in the inaka.  Mie was there, too, but she was taking the picture.

 

Another one of the barbecue.  The guy's grandma was really nice and kept bringing us stuff to eat, including watermelon (gag). I was being polite and all but I would rather eat nothing than watermelon, and I think she felt bad that I couldn't eat it, so she went to all the trouble of making green tea by hand (like an improvised tea ceremony).  It was super nice of her and really good tea, too.  In this picture we are toasting using bamboo that we cut down and were using as sake cups.  Apparently this is a traditional way of drinking sake and I have to say that the bamboo smell really makes it better.

 

Here's more of me eating, probably mozuku, which is like a really slimy seaweed. Mie wanted me to eat it because I was saying that there's no way most Americans would even think of it as food. It really looks like pond scum or something, but it had a nice flavor (some kind of sauce), and at this point no food textures bother me at all.

 

Another toast, but this time with Mie on the left there.  New sunglasses, by the way.

Again, more delicious food. The towel around the neck thing is what I refer to as 超ジャパニーズ, "chou japaniizu" or very Japanese. You see people with towels around their necks all over the place during the summer because it is so handy to be able to wipe sweat off yourself in the oppressive heat and humidity. It also prevents sunburn, which is much appreciated.