Pictures from this trip can be found here:
The last day of our trip was really just about returning home and getting to bed early so we’d be OK to work the next day. However, that was no reason not to eat lots of good food on the way.
Our breakfast at the hotel was another buffet style meal, again with the gloves and each dish meticulously covered in plastic wrap to ensure safety. There were some ho-to noodles available so I made my own little dish with those, and the coffee machine was pretty good here. Even down here in the lobby they had an automated wine server machine (closed for breakfast, dammit) so it is clear that wine brings a lot to the local economy.
We checked out and went to the train station just a few steps away. There weren’t so many souvenirs available here, and the shop that we had marked as the one we wanted to visit was still closed in the morning. Oh well, on to the next leg of the journey.
Kuniko had arranged an express train from Kofu, that ran along the base of Mt. Fuji, and eventually arrived at Shizuoka. It was a slow, winding trip and it passed through some beautiful countryside on the way. I really enjoyed this part of the journey because you could see parts of Japan that we normally wouldn’t. There are lots of small towns and life seems pretty different there. I’m glad we live where we do – it is a nice balance between urban and rural.
At a certain spot we got some nice views of Mt. Fuji, so distinctive in shape and seeming to stand alone of the horizon. There wasn’t snow up top yet, but I imagine it won’t be much longer. At Shizuoka we got off our train and went straight to a sushi restaurant that Kuniko had picked out. We got two big plates of sushi and some cold beers, and the quality was very good. The prices were more reasonable than what I had expected, too. Around the station Shizuoka seemed like most other big Japanese cities, so we didn’t really spend much time here. After buying some souvenirs we caught the bullet train and got off at Nagoya for one last gourmet adventure before returning home.
Our main target was to visit a brewery that we recently discovered, called Y.Market Brewing. They brew a lot of different beers (sometimes it seems like a new beer every week!) Their brewery was in downtown Nagoya, so we made a beeline there to check it out. To kill time before they opened we went to a dive izakaya for miso katsu and eel, two local specialities that I really like to eat occasionally.
Walking around downtown Nagoya was very similar to Osaka and other metropolis cities in Japan. There were interesting shops and things were almost the same as back in Kansai, but just a shade different. It would be fun to spend more time here, but we were on a surgical strike – and it was a school night.
We were there when Y.Market Brewing opened, and we really liked the atmosphere of the place. This was lunchtime on a Monday so there weren’t big crowds, but for us it was amazing just have a beer at noon. We were already up to date on the beers they were serving (no exclusives available today) but it was fun to be at ground zero and to support the company a little bit more than just our occasional internet orders.
We were pretty tired out after all the travel, so we caught a bullet train from Nagoya to Nishi Akashi, and just like that we were home. Everything was normal at our house, but we had a camera full of photos and some great memories from the trip. Kuniko had a bottle of nice champagne waiting for us in the refrigerator, and even a birthday necktie to give me as well.
It turned out to be a great birthday trip on a milestone birthday, and it was all thanks to Kuniko. Not only did she pay for and organize the whole thing, she was constantly doing research, finding delicious places, adapting to earthquakes, and making sure that I was having a good time. It is no small thing to pull off something like this and I realized how lucky I am to have someone who would do that for me. I’m looking forward to the (distant!) future when I get a chance to pay her back on her 50th birthday.
It was a great trip! Who knows when the next one will be?
