mystery tour

The other day Satoshi and I went on a "mystery tour".

They don't tell you where you are off to until you get to the destination, I thought they would tell us when we boarded the bus, but no, you don't know until you arrive.

One thing we do whenever we travel is apply for travel insurance, because well, you never know.

This time around when we applied for the insurance, we had to just fill out a form with our names and address and the insurance company filled in the destination because...it was a "mystery" or secret.

Our first stop was Taga taisha in Shiga, which we visited back in 2011. Unlike in 2011, the area was packed with people for the New Year.

The next stop on our tour was supposed to be a marble factory in Gifu, but since it was the New Year, many places were closed, including this factory.

We did receive these beads (rose quartz and smoky quartz) as part of our fukubukuro (lucky bags).

Next up was lunch, which was up the street from the marble factory.

The lunch was a comparison of various brand name beef.

There was Matsusaka sushi,

Hida Hoba miso (a dish which is cooked on a hoba (magnolia leaf) with beef and miso),

and Omi sukiyaki.

We were a bit disappointed by the sushi (the meat was kinda tough) but everything else was tender and delicious.

I was impressed by the blizzard that snuck up on us while we were eating lunch.

Then we went south to Mie Prefecture to a city called Sekijuku.

It was a beautiful city that had many houses kept in the old style.

Check out this old mailbox.

I was really intrigued by this egg vending machine too.

The price for the eggs were a bit pricey compared to what we pay at the market, but I think for local fresh eggs, it would be worth the price.

And then we headed back to Osaka, we received more items for our fukubukuro...1 Ise ebi (lobster) each.

100 grams of Omi beef each.

300 grams of Shiga koshihikari rice each.

1 Zuwaigani (snow crab) each.

Thank goodness these crustaceans were par-boiled, I don't know what I would've done if they were "live"...

I put everything into the freezer and we'll be eating these in the coming weeks.

We enjoyed ourselves and hope these fukubukuro items will be tasty.

fukubukuro

A couple of weeks ago, I ordered some things from DHC. I knew of DHC when I was in Hawaii (they were originally a Japanese company which sold out of SF in the U.S. I would order some of their cosmetics and skincare off and on when I was in Hawaii.) When I moved to Japan, I kept ordering their cosmetics off and on and noticed that the company had also branched off into clothing and gourmet foods.

So when I ordered some things online and they said that I had collected enough points to redeem them for a fukubukuro. I wrote about fukubukuro in the past and was kind of leery as to what I would receive, but decided to redeem my points anyway (if you don't redeem them by a certain date you lose them).

My package was delivered a few days later...I opened it to find the items I ordered, plus a 750 ml bottle of olive oil!

Since the price of gasoline went up, so did the price of our cooking oils (as well as many other products). Apparently this one is worth 2000 yen (about US$20).

Also in the box were several instant products...curry, o-kayu (gruel) & okara (soy lees) cookies. Things I wouldn't buy but grateful as they are great for lunches in a pinch.

Here's a little review of the products I received: okara cookies...healthy maybe, but very bland, I imagine this is what styrofoam must taste like. If you are ordering this, please tell me what flavor is the best....

Keema curry: spicy and delicious. Portion probably not enough for guys.

Curry flavored o-kayu (gruel): 12 different grains + rice and curry flavor...spicy but kind of sweet....seemed like there was a lot of cardamom or coriander in it. Again, the portion is probably not enough for guys.

I'm glad I redeemed my points and happy that they didn't send me anything that I couldn't or wouldn't use.