Oarai

We finally got the rest of our stuff Thursday. It's so weird that I thought we shipped more stuff, but didn't. Oh well, we've been able to find pretty much everything here, but of course with a premium. We also exchanged our rental Fit, for our newer and more awesome YELLOW Fit. I love it. It's so cool! The back up camera is probably my favorite part so far. We took a day trip Saturday to Oarai, which is 1.5 hours east of Utsunomiya. Matt, Michael and I went to check out a famous fish market, see the Ocean and go to an aquarium. The fish market was very neat. I mean, i've seen them on tv, but really don't get the opportunity to experience them since we lived in Ohio. There were so many types of fish that we have never seen before. Truly amazing. Of course it smelled fishy, but once you get over that you can really take in everything the fish markets have to offer. There were fresh, as in swimming and moving, fish and crabs. It was weird and cool at the same time. We saw whole salmon fish the length of my arm. I arms are not super long, but still they were pretty big. There were so many pieces of sushi grade fish available that you could open and eat with a little wasabi. After walking the fish market, we grabbed lunch at a kaiten sushi place that Michael's co-worker recommended. The "neta" = fish on top of the rice ball in nigiri sushi was huge. I mean you could barely see the rice. It was awesome and delicious. After lunch we drove to the beach area and even though it was a bit chilly there were quite a bit of surfers out. Michael's co-worker surfs so maybe that will be something we will learn in the summer. Matt and Michael bared the cold and soaked their feet in the water for a short period of time. They did confirm that the water was FREEZING. brrrr. I was just cold walking along side the beach. It was beautiful though. I have now seen both sides of the Pacific. We drove alongside the ocean seeing if there were campgrounds, beach house rentals, etc. The information was hard to find, it is not as easy as looking for a house with a "For Rent" sign on it. We finished off the trip with a visit to the Oarai Aqua World. This was one of the best aquariums I have ever been to. It was so big and beautiful. There were many species I have never seen, but they there were those familiar ones. I think the tank with the sharks, sea turtles, stingrays, etc. was the big tank I have every seen. I could watch the fish for hours. They are so fascinating. The day was cut a little shorter because I had my first nomikai to go to. It was a ladies night nomikai (all you can eat and drink special). We went to a yakiniku place called Kagaribi. It was delicious, but lots of food. I tried my first Calpus Sour drink and those might be dangerous. I liked them. I only had one though because I was tired from the day. I called the night after eating because we had spent all day in Oarai. Next time I will venture to karaoke festivities.

*Check out photos of Oarai through the photos link.