Okazaki, Japan

Another post! Keep 'em coming!
So I did a very spontaneous trip to my mom's hometown, Okazaki, Japan in mid May.
My mom needed help clearing out Ojii-chan's house (Grandpa) and it was sad, but we also had no time to be sad, and took many trips to the city dump daily. Like 2-4 trips.
He lived by himself and his house was full of his day-to-day necessities, but also stuffed with objects that hadn't seen the light of day for decades, carefully wrapped in their original wrappings in their original box, sometimes even the box was further wrapped. Japanese people love to keep the boxes for everything - plates, bowls, binoculars, tabletop burner, hotplate, you name it, the box stays with it. We tried to ship to the States as much as we could, but that's really pricey, so we had to be judicious with our decisions to keep or dump. Dan and I are actually getting a piano! More on that when it arrives in July.

It wasn't a relaxing or fun trip, per se, but I did get to eat loads of sushi and fish and pickled stuff, and, omigod, salivating just thinking about all the food. I also was able to take one afternoon to check out a local ocean-side onsen (hot spring) town. The town itself is called Gamagoori, and it's a very old town built around Miya onsen.

people digging for shellfish

 The town is known for its seafood and I was not disappointed. At all. Like, I could eat that stuff every single day, every meal, for the rest of my life.

that shrimp melted - nay, dissolved - in my mouth

not a kernel of rice left, duh

the outdoor bath had a view just like this. Obviously, I couldn't take my camera into the public bath so I took a picture from the rooftop of a nearby building.

After some heavy lifting, heavy sweating, and heavy cleaning, relaxing in a seaside hot spring bath was just what the doctor ordered. I came out of that bath slippery smooth, my skin rejuvenated. Ah Japan. I'll be back -- next time with Dan in tow.