foodie kind of weekend

Saturday was cloudy with some rain. Satoshi and I took the train to a station called Tada. This town is in the mountains and quite old. There are many large houses with very large gardens and several shrines. Lunch was ramen at a place called Tobe. I think this restaurant is part of a franchise chain. The ramen soup was good, but the noodles were a bit too soft.

Dessert was at a souffle shop called Knott's Berry in Kawanishi. This place is also a franchise chain. The chocolate and caramel souffles that we had were delicious. The only thing I didn't like was that everyone around us were smoking.

Dinner was an assortment of pupus (appetizers) as we watched the Japan Series (the Japanese version of the World Series) We had poke (seasoned cubed raw fish, tomato, onion), cabbage asazuke (lightly pickled cabbage), assorted fried horsebeans flavored with curry, chili and garlic/black pepper and chips with salsa. I got to try Tokyo Black a beer made by Yonayona, I really liked this, it was smoky and full bodied.

Sunday, on the other hand, was a beautiful sunny day. We headed to Banpakukoen which was where the World Fair was held in 1970. After the fair, it was turned into a huge park. We've gone at different times of the year to enjoy the different flowers. Today we went to enjoy their cosmos. There were lots of families with picnic lunches and the weather was quite warm, it was actually hot!

Since we didn't bring our own lunch, we headed to the Expo hotel which is next door to the park, for their buffet. Most of the food had been sitting out for awhile so it was quite crusty and not too good, though Satoshi ate like he's never been fed in awhile...hmm. The highlight for me was the dessert area, there were some mini cakes, creme brulee and scoop your own ice cream. I scooped some green tea, strawberry and vanilla and used the chocolate from the chocolate fondue as a topping to make a sundae.

Dinner was steak with chili soybeans as we again watched the Japan Series.

We hope your weekend was a nice one. We sure had a lot of food and got to enjoy nature. Have a great week.