Shopping at Tobu Mall~Happy Coat

The adventure for today has begun. I'm to meet Sue and Deb over at the Fish bus station then on to Tobu Mall where we will walk to the restaurant to meet Teresa.  Standing at the fish (bus has fish on it) bus stop  Teresa calls and says she's out of tea class and will just come and pick us up. :-) She pulled up and we jumped in the car. We are now headed for the restaurant where Teresa has lunch every Wednesday with her tea class. Teresa gave us a box to look in that her tea sensa gave her to share with us. When I opened the box it was full of trinkets that she had made which consisted of a clam shell covered in material attached to a string with a bell on it; very pretty. Deb and Sue taking their turns picking them some to keep and share with others.

Arriving at the restaurant you can tell the place is pretty new and very clean and pretty. We were seated at a table that overlooked the garden area awe so pretty.

We had Oyakudon which was very tasty. Oyakudon is a Japanese  rice bowl dish, in which chicken ,egg, green onions, and other ingredients are all simmered together in a sauce and then served on top of a large bowl of  rice.  The restaurant is located right across from the Utsunomiyia Park where the famous castle sits.

Oyakudon~My Lunch

 Time to check out Tobu Mall which is right across from the Ori & Dori outdoor mall, we can just SHOP TILL WE DROP.........LOL 

Went up to 6th floor where all the sales are happening YIPPEE .....  I bought a Happy Coat which is generally worn over a kimono but I wear them as a jacket.  I ended up buying one that the girls said looked good on me, very nice fall colors. ; -)

We are heading up to the 7th floor now where many many products are brought in from the other side of the island from a place called Hokkido.  It was so crowded hundreds of people buying and selling everything from fish to items made of copper.  Right at the entrance there was a booth set up selling all kinds of fish.  The were yelling and attracting lots of customers to buy their fish. 

As we entered the mad house I made sure I stayed close to one of the ladies. It made me uncomfortable to be in such a crowd; did not want to get lost from them.

 A stand was set up selling sweet potatoes.  They sold for 100g for 200 yen.  They sold them by weight, they all got one so I thought since we are eating dinner at home I would get one too. :-)  I tried to pick the smallest one they had but they all were very big.  When the girl boxed it up and told me $12  my mouth fell to the floor and I told her no way I'm not paying $12.  Teresa stepped in and asked if she had a smaller one and she said no. Teresa told her sorry we don't want one.  WOW I was embarrassed in front of my friends but there is just no way I'm spending that kind of money on a twice baked sweet potato no matter how good it is....YIKES....I don't live here so i can wait to go home and get one.

There were lots of booths selling fish eggs, and lots of fish, crab and stuff in which I have no clue what it was.

I did take a sample of of some crab and it was delicious.

We stopped at a booth that was set up selling lotions.  We enjoyed trying out the different lotions and ended up buying some.  The ladies working there enjoyed us Americans LOL We were all laughing about this small bottle of horse oil they gave us for our hair.  Don't use much or your hair will get oily and you may never get it out. just kidding.........

Time to get out of the mall and head home the men will be off work and wondering where we are LOL

On the way home Teresa showed us a church made out of Oya stone. Oya Museum is very famous location to visit while in Utsunomiyia Japan.

Marlon is home and its around 8pm and we are finally headed out to eat our dinner.  Funny thing when we walked out there was Sue and her hubby with a car load of fellows.  They were here to pick them up to take them to dinner. Nice to see her and yes we were suppose to eat in tonight but since Marlon is working over tomorrow he wanted to eat in the room on that day. Sue and I were joking around and I ask her why she was in the RED LIGHT district ?  Told her she can't be invading in on my territory LOL We have a  nice hotel but the Red Light district is not far from here. LOL They were headed off to the German restaurant; we are headed to Min Min's Gyoza house.

Gyoza house was packed as usual so we went in to put our name on the list they wanted Marlon to write in Japanese in which he couldn't.  They wrote 2 for two of us and then I told them just call Guy jean (foreigner)LOL Think I'm going to learn to write my name in Japanese.

 This is the kind of place when we were called in to be seated you sit where ever there is a vacant spot.  We ended up sitting with 2 young men who showed me how to mix my dip for my gyoza.  Vinegar, soy sauce and hot pepper oil.  :-)  They were about done when we sat down; they were bragging about how much they could eat.  They had eaten 3 sets of gyoza which equals 18 pieces and 2 big bowls of rice.  WOW....

The gyoza was absolutely wonderful crispy on the bottom and juicy on the top. YUMMO...........