No seriously, I haven't. I've been using the onsens everyday, so you wet and scrub yourself before getting in, then soak for a bit, then rinse yourself off afterwards.
Today I woke up with no energy. I didn't want to get man-flu like Dean, so I decided a day off was needed. Pity too, as I would have liked to hit up Gala Yuzawa/Yuzawa Kogen/Ishiuchi Maruyama. But my body was telling me no, so thought it best to listen. I hate sitting around, so after having breakfast, and an onsen, I got ready to go into town. Just as I got to the lobby, Tim and Kerry arrived, and I had to tell them I wasn't going out. They decided to go to Gala anyway, so they walked back down and around to the slopes.
Dean ended up going back to sleep, and Zoe didn't feel up to much, so Paul, Mum, Whit and I got the mini-van into town. We were going in and out of the shops, passing time. I wasn't too hungry, but once the yakiniku stalls opened, Paul and I got some meat sticks, and Mum and Whitney got some Takoyaki to share. They also wanted to show us where they had the awesome creme caramel the day before. so after walking around for a while, we headed across the carpark to the place they had them.
The furnishings were interesting. For tables, they had big old wooden doors, with the iron rivets and knockers and rings, as well as sporadic bookshelfs and stools to sit on. We ordered some of the "puddin" and Paul ordered some very moorish chocolate cake, whilst Whitney got a cheesecake with berries to share with Mum. It was pretty good creme caramel, as the custard was really creamy. Possibly a little rich, but I didn't intend on going back for seconds.
We then started walking back to the hotel, via the fruit shop (had to get more strawberries, and a massive fuji apple), a toy/knick-knack shop, cake and alcohol shop (all your vices in one place), and wherever looked interesting enough to poke our heads into. As we went, we threw snowballs, took pictures, and mucked around, but got back to the hotel eventually. It was getting on to about 2pm, and with Dean sleeping in our room, I hung out in mum and Whitney's room and type the day before's blog entry. Time got away and before we knew it it was getting on to 4pm. I went and had another onsen, while Mum scoured the information booklet for somewhere to eat. They found a place called Bitoro (Vitreaux) that looked like it had a bit of everything, so that was the decision made.
Once everyone was ready, we asked at the front desk. Instead of just us to the 7-11 or West Exit of the train station as per normal, the guy drove us straight to the restaurant. On getting out, we saw it was closed, with a few of us thinking we would be searching around for the next few hours for somewhere else to eat. Just as we were going to walk off, a car pulled up and a largish Japanese man got out. He then opens the door and tells us to go up. Sweet. We had just been a bit early, is all.
The menu was mostly in Japanese, but as it was katakana, both Whitney and I could translate it quite easily. I ordered a steak and potato (wedges), caesar salad, while the rest ordered 2x steak salads, 1x fried chicken, 1x fried potato wedges, 1x margarita, 1x ham and cheese pizza and a lobster spaghetti, as well as a pitcher of beer, a drinks bar, smirnoff ice, milk tea and a caraff of wine. We ate til exploding, as we didn't realise the serves would be so generous. The total price was 14300Y, so very good for the size and quality that we ate.
We started walking back through the station, and wouldn't you know it, the crepe place was closed again (must close early, as it was only 7pm-ish). We walked around the markets some more, with mum and Zoe looking at cheeses, but by the time we were finished, it was getting late (too late for the Hiace), and Dean said he was ok to walk, so we wondered out way back to the hotel via the cake and alcohol shop.
We decided the party would move to mum's room that night, and we were all in there eating nibblys, but after sharing a pitcher of beer with Dean, I didn't feel like any more. We had been there a few minutes, when there was a knock at the door. Everyone else was feeling tired, so I went and answered. It was one of the old guys staying down the hall. He invited me for a drink, which I obliged. He was a retired gent from Chiba city, who had been taking English classes, so I think he just wanted to practice his english. The other guy didn't say much, but I think he may have been the older guy mum had directed down the hall, after he mistakenly come into Dean and my room. They poured me a generous measure of sake and we sat down on the cushions. Now usually I'm not that fond of sake, I find it a little salty and prefer shochu (japanese) or soju (korean) rice spirit. But this stuff was nice, and I noticed it as one of the local bottles they were selling markets. We chatted for a bit, before I decided to go. I was getting tired, and didn't really feel like being plied with alcohol, so after a couple of photos with the ojisans, we said our good nights and went to bed.
I'll update the posts with more photos later on. I've got flat batteries in my phone, video-camera and I keep forgetting to take my camera out with me.
No comments:
Post a Comment