Two updates in one week - pretty impressive. Usually I'm not on the internet long enough to get around to typing out my insane monologues. You should all consider yourself lucky haha.
First off on our day off in Usuki we found ourselves searching for a place to eat lunch. It was around 1:30 and almost all of the restaurants were already closed until dinner time. We ended up getting pretty desperate and agreed to just go into the next restaurant that was open. We finally found one and stepped inside to find ourselves in a three-tabled dining room with a row of extra seating at the bar. We grabbed ourselves a seat at the bar (so we could actually sit on chairs) and low and behold they had English menus! But after that is when things started to go downhill... The food was horrible so say the least - Amy was given some shrimp fully intact - that is to say eyeballs and all! After seeing that neither of us had much of an appetite left. My meal wasn't as bad as Amy's - I ordered some tempura and double checked with the server (who was actually a very friendly, and luckily very understanding, middle-aged women) that it was just vegetable. She assured me that yes, it was in fact vegetable (or "begitible" as the menu read) tempura. When my meal came there were *some* vegetables but it was mostly miscellaneous seafood, and not being in my, ahem, usual adventurous mood, I didn't feel like wading through and determining which seafood was edible to my Western palate. I ate a few pieces of the recognizable vegetables that I saw - eggplant, squash, and sweet potato and then left the rest. Yes, I felt bad for wasting so much food, but trust me it was for the best!
So Usuki turned out to be... Well... How to put this...? It made Oita look like a bustling metropolis! It was pretty "quaint" to say it nicely. Not a whole lot happening around there. The historical district was pretty cool - we saw lots of traditional style homes and a huge old cemetery. It was more of what I actually expected Japan to look like. (I'll try to get some pictures uploaded at some point in the next few days). I'm not sure if we're going to be cursed now for walking around and taking pictures in the cemetery but I'm sure Buddha is a forgiving god...? Maybe? And besides, we're gaijin (foreigners) so it's not like we knew any better. (I'm not sure how long that excuse is going to work for).
Also in Usuki we went and saw some stone Buddhas that were carved into/out of (?) the mountain-side. They were pretty amazing! Hundreds of years old and still in generally decent condition! (Again I'll see what I can do about some pictures). Not that the pictures will do them any justice, something like that just has to be seen in person. The stone Buddhas aren't unique to Usuki though, I hear there are similar sites elsewhere around Japan.We didn't get around to going to the limestone caves on Tuesday and I'm not sure I would've wanted to go then anyways. It was absolutely freezing! I'm pretty sure it was the coldest day we've had here so far, and it was insanely windy! I swear I almost got knocked off my feet more than once (and no I hadn't been drinking any sake!). Maybe we'll head back to Usuki to visit the caves another day, but I'm not sure having to endure Usuki for a whole day would be bearable a second time - yes it was that bad. Let me rephrase: Seeing and experiencing the town once was good enough to last a lifetime. ...Maybe we'll try to find some limestone caves elsewhere ;)
Today we lucked out and found a taco kit at the grocery store. For the modest price of $6.75 (or so) we had the most delicious meal I could've ever imagined. No, I never thought I'd be saying that about tacos haha. In all seriousness the food I've had here (with the odd exception or two) hasn't been all that bad. But to have something as "normal" as we did tonight just made me realize how different things are here. The fact that Japan is different than Canada is obviously a given, and it's not actually a bad thing, I think it's just that until tonight I didn't realize how different things are. Foodwise, it's especially difficult not having a proper oven or a microwave - there are only so many things I know how to make on a two-burner stove. I know I know, having any kind of epiphany out of tacos is pretty amusing. Prepare for more in the future. (I can only imagine what would happen if I got my hands on some perogies haha).
Oh yeah, so the other night we made spaghetti (again another normal meal) and we decided to have garlic bread to go along with it. When I asked the guy at the grocery store if there was any garlic bread he kindly walked me across the entire length of the store to the garlic. Not exactly what I wanted but I thanked him anyways and assumed that they didn't actually have garlic bread. So I found some garlic butter and bought a baguette. Back at home we tried to toast the bread in our "oven". And by oven, of course I mean the 2"x6"x8" fire death trap below our two burners. This "oven" is also heated by gas, and we managed to set the garlic bread on fire. I'm pretty sure it was only in there for a minute or two, but that was enough to burn all four slices to a crisp! I don't think I'll be using that device ever again! Luckily we have a toaster oven that's not gas-powered. (Just on a side note: I think I'm obsessing over these so-called "normal" meals just because up until recently all we've been making at home was stir-fries).
Alright well that's all the news I have for now. I'll see what I can do about those pictures later!
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