Okonomiyaki and Mitaki Shrine

Okay!  I said I'd follow up with the other half of last weekend and here it is.  Sorry for the delay.

On Monday we went out for lunch and got okonomiyaki.  What's okonomiyaki, you ask?  Only the best food ever!  And it's a Hiroshima specialty.

Here they are making it on the grill in front of us.

The finished product!  Mmmm...

As you can see, it's made of noodles, lettuce, an egg, some teriyaki sauce, and other deliciousness.  It's put in a magic pile and cooked on a grill.  If you come to visit us, we'll make you eat it!

After lunch we headed to Mitaki Station so we could walk to a shrine Joanna heard about.  It was up the side of a mountain and we were both recovering from a cold so it was kind of an effort, but it was totally worth it!  The pictures will do a better job of explaining how beautiful it was.

Look at all that NATURE!

Joanna by the pagoda.

Place was surrounded by these picturesque waterfalls.

It was all her idea!

Stairs up the mountain.

Waterfalls EVERYWHERE!

Your shrine-standard thunder god.  No big.

This tree was nuts.  How is it growing like that?!

So as you can tell it was pretty darned gorgeous.  A great afternoon trip!

Also, have some random pictures from this set:

I want this kid's jacket really bad.  It reads: "BACK TO SCHOOL.  Feel so Good.  HARDKNOK GENERATION.  THE BEAT WILL MAKE YOU MOVE."  Gotta love that wacky Engrish!

We found this prize machine at the arcade.  That's right: instead of candy or small toys, the prize is MEAT PRODUCTS.  Mini sausages, just what I always wanted!

Japanese police cars look like they're from Robocop or something.  So futuristic!