Other hightlights

I can't say that any of these photos deserves it's own post, just some favorite moments from our trip:


Steve's awesome pizza: I don't think any visit with Steve is complete without him making pizza, the real Italian way. It might be a long process, but it's always good. This was our last meal together, and was also the day of desserts. It started with the cake shop that made the wedding cake, continued at the crepe truck parked outside the supermarket, and was rounded out by a delivery of sweets from Yoshimi's parents. This trip was a bit of a food fest.


Drinking Champagne on Steve and Yoshimi's beach. How lucky are they to live so close to the beach?


Karaoke. This was the best karaoke place ever. Free tambourines, and high tech equipment. And the videos were way less cheesy than most places. The highlights were the actual concert videos that came on for the Bon Jovi and Red Hot Chili Peppers songs that we chose. Karina was also a star at finding all the awesome 80s hits that we wanted to sing, but couldn't remember the names of.

The morning after the awesome ryokan night

I ended the last post with a shot of the midnight snack, and coffee service, but before I get going on all of that, here's a shot of the private outdoor bath that we had in our room. We also used the public baths, which had sake that you could sip out of bamboo cups while you soaked. Perfect for recovering from a grueling bike ride!


Breakfast!


Here's the close up of everything: there was fish that we grilled ourselves, tofu with bonito flakes, the three small dishes in the front are seaweed salads, and the oval dish contains an 'onsen' egg, one that's cooked in water the temperature of the baths. There was also salad, grapefruit wedges, miso soup, rice, radishes, and croissant. And a glass of milk. Delicious!


After breakfast we went back to the room, and Karina had a quick nap, while the rest of us got going on making coffee.


There was a little machine for us to hand grind the beans, the the boiling water was poured into a copper pot, to then be poured in a thin stream through the filter. Fun.



This whole experience was so exhausting that we all fell asleep in the car on the way home, waking up just in time for lunch at a cute cafe in another small town down the coast from Maji. No surprise why we were sad to leave Japan!





Then we stopped to check out some windmills, and the waves. This is the life!

The Awesome Ryokan Experience

The perfect reward for an great bike ride isn't just food.

It's food, plus a hot bath and an awesome-ly authentic Japanese ryokan experience.


The experience began really before we even got out of the car. The hostess was out in the parking lot helping to guide the car into the spot, and then she carried all our bags inside. Once we had checked in, we got to choose a yukata to wear during our stay.


Thank goodness Yoshimi was there to get us all dressed!



All dressed up, in one of the bedrooms


Dinner. Don't forget that we ate massive bowls of ramen two hours earlier.
This is a shot of what was on the table when we sat down.


The first course was an assortment of small bites. All delicious (although the cube shaped one had a bit of a bizarre texture)


Also delicious, but I think the bowl was the highlight.


Sashimi


Shimane beef grilled on our own personal hotplates


More fish, this one a particular kind that is only found in the sea of Japan


A rice ball filled with sea bream. Loved the dish it was served in.


Mini squid. Not so tasty, but again, pretty dish.


And just in case we were still hungry, the last course before dessert was miso soup and rice with pickles.


Green tea mousse.


After dinner the boys checked out the complimentary sake tasting bar,


While the ladies sipped tea


And one last check to make sure that we didn't go hungry: they left a midnight snack in the room when they set out the futons. We were way too full to even think about eating the onigiri that were inside the bamboo roll, and I'm still regretting that. On the left is the coffee set for the morning. More photos on that coming soon!

The Bike Ride

Steve and Yoshimi had planned an extensive hike/bike for Thursday and Friday, ending up at a traditional ryokan.


We walked through small towns, and rice fields


The walk portion ended at this temple, where the rain and biking began (it always rains when we bike)


After a very steep ascent up the mountain, we spent the majority of the two hour ride coasting down hills and through more small sleepy towns.

And all great Steve style bike rides end, of course, with food.

At the Tanukuni-no-kuni restaurant we were rewarded with ENORMOUS bowls of ramen, steamed pork buns, and sweet sesame balls.

We spent that night at a beautiful ryokan in a nearby town. Stay tuned for details on that, and on the amazing dinner we had there just two hours after our ramen 'snack'.