Trip to Fukushima

On October 4th and 5th of 2021, I went to a trip to Fukushima with my husband, two kids, and my parents. 

It was just an overnight trip, but it was such an amazing trip!

Toh no Hetsuri 

I live in Ibaraki, and took us 3 and half hours driving with a local road (not high way).

There are free parking. 

They are all free but the ones closer to the bridge are by souvenir shops but they require a purchase. 

It is a Japanese culture to give a way souvenir to neighbors and coworkers etc. so for Japanese, there is no problem. 

My kids are 2 and 3 years old so it was convenient to park close by. 

For those of you who have no cars, there is a train station close by (3 minutes on foot).

It was so beautiful. 

Leaves started to change color. 

You can clime the cliff but there is no fence so you need to be careful. 

For 2 and 3 years old, it was too dangerous, so we did not go that far. 

And what I got surprised was they sell vipers soaked in a sake jar at souvenir shops. 

In Japan, it is said it's good for your health and stuff but they were still alive😱

Ouchi-juku

No admission needed. 

 I opened this blog for the first time in years and I am happy and surprised some people still visit my blog. 

Thank you so much!

So, I decided to start writing again. 

First of all, I would like to update on what I have been doing. 

I quit my job and came back to Japan in 2014. 

And I met my husband and got married on 2015. 

Now I have two sons, one is 4 years old, and the other one is 2 years old. 

My husband and I are self-employed. 

My income went down compared to when I was working in the US, but it is less stressful and more time to spend with my family, so I am content. 

I am hoping to introduce about Japan through this blog.

The picture above is Ouchi-juku which is an old village in Fukushima.

My family and I went there in summer.

This is back in October 2012 when this drama started.
Kekkon shinai means I do not get married.
Since a lot of women are busy with their jobs and not having many opportinities to meet with men, there are a lot of single women over 30 in Japan.

The main character of this drama is Chiharu (Kanno Miho) who is 35 years old.
One day, she met with Haruko (Amami Yuki) at a park after an unexpected event, and Chiharu moved into Haruko's house.
Chiharu is single and has no boyfriend, and worried about her future if she will get married and so on.
Haruko is also single and has no boyfriend, but she chose to be that way and loving her life.
The drama shows Chiharu and Haruko's friendship, their love sotries, and change in their feeling toward marriage to so on.

This drama has no drastic or unusual events, it shows people's daily life and their struggles.
But I love this drama. I can put myself into their shoes and understand their feelings.
And I guess I like Kanno Miho's drama in general.
She is very cute and love to see her fashion too.

The last episode of this drama was very interesting too.
It's  a happy ending, but not in a usual way.
But I'm glad Chiharu found her own happiness:)

I went to a Japan trip not too long ago, and the trip made me realize again how good the food is over there.
I absolutely love love love them!

 First one is Takoyaki from Gindako. Tako is octopus, so inside of this ball, there is a tako.
The sauce on the top is regular sauce plus mentai mayo. Mentai is cod roe.
This takoyaki in specific is so soft and juicy. And it matches with the source so much. I absolutely love it.
This dish is so colorful and looks so healthy.
It was grilled chicken with steam veggies. As I can tell from the picture, there are sweet potatoes, sweet corns, tomatoes, paprika. And there is a pouched egg on a top.
I ate this in a restaurant in Tokyo somewhere when I met with my friends. Boy she knows a good place. The restaurant was so crowded and customers were mainly woman. It was almost like a cafe style. We sat by window, so we enjoyed sunshine and everything. Last but not least, this is a dish came on my cousin's wedding. can you see what's covering the sashimi (raw fish)? It's ice! I thought this was really neat. I have never seen something like this. You can let sashimi cooled, and you have no worry to break (it will break but you can make it again). This might be a good idea for home party and stuff.

Anyway, I hope you can see how amazing food were in Japan. I absolutely loved it. And the best part was that after eating out so much, I gain nothing. The portion is small, and there are less calorie, so i guess that's why I did not gain weight. I cannot wait to go back to Japan and eat good food again!!

In Japan, there are a lot of restaurants where they displays their food in their showcase.


They are not real. Sometimes they are made from wax, plastics, or clay.


It's very helpful.


By visualizing their own dishes, people get more interested in the dishes, and they get more hungry.




Look at these pretty cakes!


I get hungry by looking at this...



But....



These are not real.



I cannot pick one!


Which one would you like to try?