Shizuoka shopping, spiders and smörgåsbord

Sunday night "light" dinner. (onions in umeboshi marinade, sushi over rice with seaweed, a few pieces of fish, etc.)





Monday morning, off to do some shopping.

We went to D2 (no relation to R2) and picked up some tatami-like mats for the living room and our bedroom in the apartment back in NY. Also, check out my stylin' new shirt from a store in Shizuoka called Mujirushi (the store name means "no tags"). I like it. I also picked up some new Birks for $40 and wore them today (Tuesday.... we're 13 hours ahead of NY Time here). Niiiiiice.


After going to (R2-)D2, we stopped to pick up some snacks from a specialty store: Plum, Green Tea and regular dorayaki (means something like cooked drums [probably due to the shape]... they're consist of two sweet pancakes stuffed with sweet things, especially sweet red beans). Soooooooo tasty. We had them with tea with a guest. The guest, Miki, is someone Mariko and I met at the airport in Rome last year. She lives in Yokohama but her family is from Shizuoka. She came to visit Mariko's parents.

In the evening, Mariko's oba-chan (great aunt) came back from the daily nursing home. She was "losing it" just sitting around the house (she has a little house behind this one) but when she started making daytrips to the nursing home, her mind has revitalized. She was sooooooooooooo happy to take a picture with the gai jin (me).



On the way out of the house in the morning she spanked Mariko's mom on the butt... it was... well, interesting. I forgot what she spanked her for, but she gave Mariko a huge pinch for not introducing me to her before. I've come to visit since 2004 and though she was living 20 feet away, I had never met her. Go oba-chan!






On the 1 minute walk across the street (which I extended to 5 by stopping to take pictures every 10 feet) Mariko spotted a two spiders, a husband and wife team... the smaller husband waits for the wife to get worn out after making some metamorphosis, and then he will impregnate her. If he tries to soon, she'll eat him, so he needs to keep his distance. After mating, sometimes he's too tired to move and she wakes up and eats him anyhow. Rough life.



Here's the buffet place. The Japanese call eating at a buffet eating Viking-style. I think that's pretty funny, and certainly better than the term "buffet".

The actual name of this restaurant is "Global Viking". Pretty neat, though it's not quite competition for the "East Buffet" back in New York that our friend Kevin owns. Still, the Global Viking is good for over here. Remarkably though, there are no 400lb. Japanese or sumo visiting this place.




From the front door of the buffet.... the Circle K.



The buffet and the Circle K share a parking lot.



Inside the buffet the tables have little burners so you can cook your fish/pork/beef/chicken fresh. I stuck with the sushi and veggies. Very tasty. Mariko's mom brought coupons so we got free big beers and free sweet hot macha drinks for after dinner. It was a good time.

Mariko's dad is doing something with his head in the background... who knows what?



There's a great selection of food in the evening... all for twenty bucks, tax and tip included. (actually, it was about $17 with the exchange rate in the dollar's favor right now).







Mariko ready to eat... in the background you can see her house.



Mariko and her house. She's so excited to dig in... just look at her! She's in her stomach-stuffing glory.


Oh darn, I just realized I didn't get a picture of Miki, our guest for the day. Ugh me.