Week 2 is in the history books. Our travels take us to a smaller city of 80,000 called Ryugasaki. On Saturday, April 4, the Ryugasaki-chuo club picked us up in Mito. We stopped at what they said was the “best soba restaurant”. The restaurant was a 100 year old samurai housed complete with a thatched roof that has been converted into a quaint little restaurant on top of a hill among the bamboo shoots. Of course we enjoyed the soba noodles, but we also experienced the soba tea and soba ice cream.
From there we stopped at Naritasan Shinshoji Temple and Park. It was the most beautiful day that we’ve had while in Japan. The temperature was around 70 degrees and for the first time we got to see the sakura blossoming, so it made the Buddhist grounds even more enjoyable. There were many buildings to explore. The earliest was erected in 1710. Luke, Sandra, and I especially enjoyed the Great Pagoda of Peace that was built in 1984. World leaders’ messages for world peace have been placed in a time capsule under the Great Pagoda. A picture of the inside of the pagoda has been posted and to me it doesn’t shout “world peace”, but I know there is reasoning behind statues. The words that I have to describe the temple grounds are: peaceful, mystifying, spectacular!
After reaching Ryugasaki we checked into our hotel and then went off to supper. The club treated us to the “best steakhouse in town”. They were right…the steak hit the spot. Hitachi Beef is now officially my favorite Japanese food. I like my steak.
After the meal, I went to a local masseuse. This was a new type of massage to me. I was asked to lie on the floor fully dressed, then got pulled and pushed in about every direction. I guess it was a type of shiatsu massage used for athletes to relieve muscle tension. Price: 3,000 yen, but totally worth the experience. I was ready for day 2.
Easter! With the Christian population of Japan at near zero, we still managed to find a church service to attend. The church sanctuary was small, but served its purpose. It was filled with children from the attached school. We were told that this was not a normal thing for the children to be there. The service was all in Japanese, but we were able to throw in a few “Hallelujah’s” here and there. To me it was a very moving experience seeing all the kids singing and praising our Christian God in such a non-traditional Christian country. It also made me think of my family back home and brought a few tears to my eyes experiencing all that was around me. Their enthusiasm and smiles brightened our day.
After church we pulled up to a restaurant to eat expecting the normal Japanese feast of sushi or sashimi. To our surprise were having our Easter feast at Denny’s. All we could say is “you guys are AWESOME”. The best soba restaurant, the best steak house, and NOW DENNY’S!
Luke, Kayla, and Andrew headed back to the hotel while Sandra & I took a tour of a local strawberry and rice farm. Ibaraki prefecture is #2 in Agriculture production, so I wanted to take full advantage of any opportunity I had to see agriculture in action. This was the end of the strawberry season and the beginning of the rice season. What stuck out in my mind the most with the strawberries is how they level off the plants every year to kill them (in the greenhouse), then flood the area to kill any parasites and bacteria that still exist. Each year they must re-mound and re-plant. Strawberries only account for 20% of his income, but take the majority of his time. The rice planting is done western style with a small scale tractor and planter, then after emergence, the field is flooded. He also plants some of his fields with rice plants that have sprouted in plastic flats in a greenhouse. This requires a different machine, and looked like a lot more work to me. This particular farmer has 100 hectares of rice fields to plant.
Our final stop for the weekend was another local favorite restaurant. I didn’t know what could complete our weekend of fabulous food, but this restaurant hit the spot. We had tapinyaki. It had a pancake like shape, but was a mishmash of fish, pork, eggs, vegetables, etc… making for a scrumptious meal. Ryugasaki-chuo Rotary Club made our weekend more than memorable.
