After the markets we headed to Kenrouken garden – as the Japanese say the 3rd nicest in Japan. I hate these comparisons but well, that’s Japan for you. Gardens have to follow loads of rules to be considered nice…

In general the garden is beautiful, despite the weather being quite strange and rainy

And the hordes of Japanese tourists around us. The problem is that currently the Saukra (= cherry) was still in bloom and this drives out the frenzy from our beloved hosts…

And as they always turn up in rather big numbers they are pretty hard to ignore

Well, next time I wear a t-shirt with “pay me 5000 YEN for the next photo” and “please don’t feed” on the back

Yet still – if the group passed, peace returns and it is truly amazing

The workers are worth a sight as well

With their very special uniform…

Full bloom indeed

Gnarly trees

Really twisted like a corkscrew

And protected, bandaged and straightened up again

They get really massive as well…

Small stream meander through the park

And the Japanese camellia surely enjoys the weather

Just nice colour combinations

Petal rivers

and stranded petals

I just admired the views

Different focus

The small hidden details

And was being observed

Taking my shot down-river

From there up to the bridge

Different focus again

A riot of flower buds and colours

And the typical Japanese scene

Nice toilets, too…

As we were heading out again and the rain increased as well suitable gear was essential

Just a last glimpse through the rain curtains

Having had just a bit of noodles from 4h earlier and loads of walking in between we were starving. Being in Japan this means there is a theoretical abundance of food around you, just unfortunately your timing doesn’t suit theirs. So in the end we grabbed a local junk food stall and the owner (Koozy) made us some delicious deep fried battered chicken… It was just melting (well, they cook rather rich there…) in the mouth but delicious – I assume it never met the intestine but was absorbed 150% in the stomach before

As we didn’t intend to eat in such places too often (you can only compensate so much fats and sugars…) and the selection of soft pornography for the waiting customers was not entirely our taste (welcome to Japan…) we headed back to the hotel to get dry and change clothes (mainly socks…).

So being freshly fitted we headed to our appointed restaurant to discover (again) that smoking is quite normal in restaurants and this was one thing we couldn’t really stand now. Therefore off we went to the markets once more as the restaurants open at night, too. Good that we changed socks… (you take off your shoes in most places ).

In the end we were really lucky as the place tried to serve very authentic local food and drink. Here is some excerpt from the drinks menu for sake:

That’s dry reading Here is the real stuff…

They look so innocent… But sake is technically fermented rice with water and not very strong, but veeeeery rich (around 150 kcal / 100 ml)… So it’s mostly either eat or drink

We got some nice cooked food as well

Finally… It’s steaming

Isn’t that a treat – looks like a shelled scorpion… Prawns are technically just cockroaches from the sea…

Here are some local appetizers

Puffish (right) on rice

firefly-squid marinated in soy sauce – looks disgusting but tastes delicious (just thing about anchovies – pretty much the same, just slimier )

Ok, read for yourself

And salt-grilled prawns

In the end a nice meal and much more interesting than standard classical food.