Japan Meets the Parents, Day 3 and 4

Monday we took mom and dad around Fuji and showed off some of the places we like to frequent. First on the schedule was Espot, our usual grocery store. We walked down every aisle and showed all of the things in Japanese and different foods that you don't see at American grocery stores. They were especially intrigued by the giant whole fish and the octopus that was wrapped up like any of the other meats in the store. I think they even took a picture of that, which will probably show up on my mom's Flickr soon.

After Espot, I called a cab and we went to our favorite ramen restaurant, Bankara Ramen, for lunch. It was good as usual and they both did very well eating noodles with their chopsticks. After that, we went to Aeon (and strangely had the same taxi driver as before) and showed them all around our mall. We went from store to store and bought a few things, had Baskin Robbins, and shopped some more. We also saw these shirts hanging at the Hawaiian shop which we thought were pretty funny:


Photo courtesy of Kelly

After all the shopping and Kelly's required Starbucks visit, we went back home, ordered pizza, and all vegged out for the rest of the night.

Today (Tuesday) Kelly had to work but the folks and I took a trip to Shizuoka City to see the sights there. We spent a bit of time shopping in one of the train department stores (which are huge) and then ventured out into the city. It was tough trying to be a tour guide for a city I don't really know much about, but we managed to find a good Tonkatsu restaurant for lunch and then got on the correct bus to take us to the Sengen Shrine in town. This shrine is actually three shrines in the same location and it was very beautiful. We walked all around and took lots of pictures. We were even able to see some of a ceremony going on inside one of them. After looking at all the shrines, we decided to hike up the mountain that was behind the place. It was a bit of a tough climb (no Mt. Fuji, mind you,) but we managed to make it to the top and see a wonderful view of the city with Mt. Fuji in the distance. There was also a Buddha statue at the top to commemorate the victims of a bombing during WWII. It was a nice scene all around. I even managed to have a pretty decent conversation in Japanese with some people while we stopped to take a break. I did however, confuse the lady into thinking that I was in high school somehow. I told her I live in Fuji and she said something about college. I failed to remember that I had not mentioned that I was a teacher before saying the name of my school. She looked at me confused and asked in English, "How old are you?" I then realized my mistake and quickly said "Eigo kyoushi desu. Gakusei janai." (I'm an English teacher. Not a student.) The climb back down was easier and we got back on the bus and back to the station, bought a few things and headed back to Fuji. Before going home we stopped and had Mos Burger. I had a melon soda with my meal because it was St. Patrick's Day. Actually I just had it because I like it, but mom was quick to point out that the extreme greenness of my drink was perfect for the day. Finally we headed home with sore feet and legs and have been lazy ever since.

I took a lot of pictures with the Nikon which we'll get on Flick later, but I did take this picture with my iPhone which I have to share. It's a little blurry because I was trying to take it in hurry, but you can get an idea of the situation. This happens on the trains a lot, but I thought it was hilarious that it happened to my dad.