Comment last post

I emailed the last post and my comments not coming through so just a quick one on the last pix.
That is my friends from way way back.  Came to Tokyo from Omiya and visited them.  We kinda grew up together until I had to move away for high school.  His wife prepared a gourmet dinner that night...Yum...Kobe Beef, Shumai (also from Kobe), ninomono, egg soup, and all the trimmings
Thanks guys I had a great time.

Went to high school baseball tournament, almost as big as March madness

Comments on last two posts

The last three posts were emailed and the comments didn't come through so need to explain some of it.  When I got to Omiya I found my first Family Kitchen, a very popular fast food restaurant here. (I saw this on YouTube ...Japanese lessons without speaking Japanese) the Japanese can be a funny breed...they have a tendency to contract American words so Family Kitchen becomes Faa then combined with Kin. So in the video the Haole guy is asking a young Japanese girl if she likes FaaKin...Yes I love FaaKin ...goes on like that...funny video.  So had to try this place and ask the obvious question.
That's my cousin and his daughter.  We met and had dinner at an Okonomiyaki Restaurant (Hiroshima style)
The next day I found a velodrome hoping to see some races but no to be.  They were racing at a different velodrome but a couple of guys were training and they did have off track betting with monitors televising the races.  There's also horse races, speedboat races and motorcycle races you can bet on, so my cousins taking me to watch both the bicycle races and speedboat races tomorrow. Should be fun.

Omiya

Keirin Velodrome. They weren't racing here but had off track betting. These guys were training

Omiya

Omiya was more fruitful than I had imagined

Welcome to Omiya

Nice of them to greet me at the station. Actually a fund raiser for Fukushima. So this welcome committee cost me

From my Idumbphone

Last day with the group

Spring water everywhere we went

Locals were coming here filling their bottles

Matsumoto Castle...one of only two that have been restored to its original splendor...the other one is Himejijoo Castle.  This is what I wanted to see, not the one in Nagoya

Our last day together...Nick, his dad Will, and Emily...Aloha

We went to the train station after this.  Will and Nick had to run to make the train leaving in 5 minutes,  Emily had a half a hour wait, I'm spending another night here and Ben went to visit his friend who lives just outside of Matsumoto.  I spent about ten minutes at the visitor center then walked back to the hotel.  On the way I was passing a McDonald and who do I see...Ben, our more Japanese than Japanese tour guide scarfing on a Big Mac and Fries.  Don't feel so bad wanting a cheeseburger.  Should have taken a picture though.