Bye bye, Maizuru, Goodbye
Outta here. Got the train tickets in hand, bags are packed, hotel bill is paid. Just got to finish this coffee and finish this blog...without putting the coffee into the blog, which has killed more than one of my laptops before (you'd think it would just make it work faster, huh?).... and I am home to the wife and English speaking TV. Please, do no ask which I missed more. I don't need that kind of grief.
Link on over to AI's site. That wonderful, wonderful hillbilly put a link to Travelin' Ed in one of his posts. I really like the dude, which is why he is one of only 2 links you'll find at this site. The other link deals with monkeys, so it's a keeper, too. His stories bring out the Carolina boy in me and make me think back to my days stomping around the backwoods. He especially makes me rememberize Great-Grandma Abernathy's little cabin perched up on one side of a mountian in the Pisgah Nat'l Forest. And if you go now, for no extra charge, you can read his latest: BLOGS, DOGS, BULLETS AND COONS.
Last thing, has to do with weird food. This is a very nice hotel. I took pictures and I'll post them upon my return. I am without transfer cable here. Anyway, I decided that I had been here 2 weeks and had never eaten at the real fancy resturant just off the lobby.
So I went. It was all you could eat for 2,100 yen, or around $20. Fine china, great decor, huge selection of fancy foods, pastrys and beverages. Super attentive wait staff and a great view of the water. It was nice. No one spoke English, but hey.
So right off the greeter keeps pointing to this little cup that looks like it is to be lit, you know like the little oil lamp thingys in the nicer resturants back home, and asking me something repeatedly. In Japanese. The only thing I know to do is keep replying, "Hai", or yes. I still think it's a candle of sorts. So she lights it and walks away, but comes back with an aluminum bowl that looks a lot like a cut down shell casing, puts it over the flame and puts a wooden lid on it. Now I am thinking, "Hmmmm, I have never before liked Japanese food suprises. Will this be different?"
The answer is an emphatic NO! I lifted the lid and it had little critters swimming in it, alive. Translucent bodies what let you glimpse their guts, little legs and antennas, and a look of total unconcern for their impending doom upon their little faces. Maybe about 40 of them. Oh I know, it looked like what you see on TV when they show microscopic creatures under a microscope, all boneless and wiggly.
I had to let it sit and cook for 20 min while I ate. All the while I was feeling crappy because I knew them little suckers was getting cooked alive and that there was a 244% chance that it was all for naught, cause I sure as hell wasn't eating them. But I will say this, when I opened the lid it was interesting.
There had been rice in the bottom of the bowl that steamed up to form a bed for the cooked critters. The appearance of the little dudes changed with cooking (as I suspect mine would too) and at first glance just looked like bean sprouts sprinkled on top of the rice. The bodies were the color of a hard boiled egg's white, and the heads were the color of that same egg's yolk and each was about 1 inch long and slender. Well, like a bean sprout. I really could have done without the staring eyes or the anguished look on their faces. I really don't like to eat stuff that still has a facial expression, as they are rarely pleasant expressions. Maybe that's just me, though.
Anyway, as was suspected earlier, they died for nothing as they were not entering into my list of things to eat today. I did let the manager, (yes, by this time they were going to ensure my critter eating was done in a proper and enjoyable fashion) give me a little of the rice while she explained to me that these little guys were only available to be eaten in the spring. But after a couple of bites I started thinking of how you lose control of your bodily functions as you die. Then I got to wondering if the same was true of invertibrates, 40 of them in fact. I decided that the risk was just too great that there may have been "seepage" into the rice and excused myself. We exchanged pleasantries and smiles, I paid my bill and went back to my room. I had a hot dog on a stick from the 7-11 for dinner. Hot dog's got no face.
OK, another last note. That beautiful, backlit moon I wrote of yesterday turned out to be the sun. Yes, usually I can tell the difference. The fog was just thick enough that I could look at it, so I figured it was the moon. Half hour later, I looked out to see if it was still there and it blinded me. But that does explain the part about the sun being up but I could still see the moon so clearly. I feel like one of the little ignoramuses from South Park, but without the potty mouth. Except that one "hell" earlier in the post.
Critter boiling, out
Travelin' Ed
Link on over to AI's site. That wonderful, wonderful hillbilly put a link to Travelin' Ed in one of his posts. I really like the dude, which is why he is one of only 2 links you'll find at this site. The other link deals with monkeys, so it's a keeper, too. His stories bring out the Carolina boy in me and make me think back to my days stomping around the backwoods. He especially makes me rememberize Great-Grandma Abernathy's little cabin perched up on one side of a mountian in the Pisgah Nat'l Forest. And if you go now, for no extra charge, you can read his latest: BLOGS, DOGS, BULLETS AND COONS.
Last thing, has to do with weird food. This is a very nice hotel. I took pictures and I'll post them upon my return. I am without transfer cable here. Anyway, I decided that I had been here 2 weeks and had never eaten at the real fancy resturant just off the lobby.
So I went. It was all you could eat for 2,100 yen, or around $20. Fine china, great decor, huge selection of fancy foods, pastrys and beverages. Super attentive wait staff and a great view of the water. It was nice. No one spoke English, but hey.
So right off the greeter keeps pointing to this little cup that looks like it is to be lit, you know like the little oil lamp thingys in the nicer resturants back home, and asking me something repeatedly. In Japanese. The only thing I know to do is keep replying, "Hai", or yes. I still think it's a candle of sorts. So she lights it and walks away, but comes back with an aluminum bowl that looks a lot like a cut down shell casing, puts it over the flame and puts a wooden lid on it. Now I am thinking, "Hmmmm, I have never before liked Japanese food suprises. Will this be different?"
The answer is an emphatic NO! I lifted the lid and it had little critters swimming in it, alive. Translucent bodies what let you glimpse their guts, little legs and antennas, and a look of total unconcern for their impending doom upon their little faces. Maybe about 40 of them. Oh I know, it looked like what you see on TV when they show microscopic creatures under a microscope, all boneless and wiggly.
I had to let it sit and cook for 20 min while I ate. All the while I was feeling crappy because I knew them little suckers was getting cooked alive and that there was a 244% chance that it was all for naught, cause I sure as hell wasn't eating them. But I will say this, when I opened the lid it was interesting.
There had been rice in the bottom of the bowl that steamed up to form a bed for the cooked critters. The appearance of the little dudes changed with cooking (as I suspect mine would too) and at first glance just looked like bean sprouts sprinkled on top of the rice. The bodies were the color of a hard boiled egg's white, and the heads were the color of that same egg's yolk and each was about 1 inch long and slender. Well, like a bean sprout. I really could have done without the staring eyes or the anguished look on their faces. I really don't like to eat stuff that still has a facial expression, as they are rarely pleasant expressions. Maybe that's just me, though.
Anyway, as was suspected earlier, they died for nothing as they were not entering into my list of things to eat today. I did let the manager, (yes, by this time they were going to ensure my critter eating was done in a proper and enjoyable fashion) give me a little of the rice while she explained to me that these little guys were only available to be eaten in the spring. But after a couple of bites I started thinking of how you lose control of your bodily functions as you die. Then I got to wondering if the same was true of invertibrates, 40 of them in fact. I decided that the risk was just too great that there may have been "seepage" into the rice and excused myself. We exchanged pleasantries and smiles, I paid my bill and went back to my room. I had a hot dog on a stick from the 7-11 for dinner. Hot dog's got no face.
OK, another last note. That beautiful, backlit moon I wrote of yesterday turned out to be the sun. Yes, usually I can tell the difference. The fog was just thick enough that I could look at it, so I figured it was the moon. Half hour later, I looked out to see if it was still there and it blinded me. But that does explain the part about the sun being up but I could still see the moon so clearly. I feel like one of the little ignoramuses from South Park, but without the potty mouth. Except that one "hell" earlier in the post.
Critter boiling, out
Travelin' Ed
That's what I'm about. Ramblin' Ed at 4:00 PM
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