Relaxing Sunday here in Japan.........

Marlon and I enjoyed the morning sipping coffee and sleeping in till 6am. :-)  I am feeling somewhat groggy from drinking last night; but not bad enough to keep me in bed. I just need a good cup of Caribou and I will be feeling good  I thank goodness we have brought some coffee from my favorite coffee shop in Dublin, Ohio.  Today is going to be a take it easy kind of day.

Going to get out of our room so they can clean it and walk around Utsunomiyia then decide where to eat lunch. Thought we would check La La Square out and shop there then maybe eat.  there is a speaker that is LOUD and they talk about the many stores that are located in La La Square at the end of their statement it sings LA LA>>>>>>>>>>>

Didn't find what we were looking for there so we are going to go over to the train station. Went over to the train station and walked through some stores I'm getting hungry and so we walked through the train station.









We are standing on the 2nd floor platform and look across at a place called MinMin's that serves gyoza.  Gyoza is what Utsunomiyia is famous for and it is very good.  When we looked down at Minmin's there was a line with people standing outside in the rain waiting to get in.  NO WAY am I standing in a line to eat gyoza.  I told Marlon well lets take the bus its free and go to FKD Mall which has lots of places to eat.  Outside the train station we ran into a couple of guys that work with Marlon and chatted with them for a while we are waiting on the bus to arrive.  As soon as we got to the mall we ate lunch at a Okonomiyaki place and we got Yaksoba noodles, I really like them set came with fries and a coke. Did our grocery shopping for the week and I bought a bottle of Plum sake...

Took groceries home and took off to Ori and Dori outdoors mall.  While we were there a band was playing and you could buy cocktails for $5 the event was called Cocktail Nights.  We listened to band play then took off walking around and then headed back to hotel.

Ori & Dori Outdoor Mall

                   Cocktail Night at Orin Mall













On the walk home we found a path that was lined with big willow trees that had a creek that ran along the tree line, so peaceful and romantic. This path took us most of the way back to the hotel.

I am just amazed at the parking here  in Japan the Parking buildings are built straight up and your car is pulled onto a lift that takes you car up in this elevator and puts it into a designated slot. When you want your car it is picked up again and brought down the elevator and backed out onto this turntable to get you going in the right direction.  AWESome.

When we returned from exploring we met Marlon's group of fellows in the lobby where we sat and chatted for a while just talking about our day. There is 10 of us and we all went  to Sammy's 1 and had dinner.