Day 2 in Utsunomiya Japan

Day 2 in Utsunomiya Japan  Feb. 28, 2010


It's 4am and Marlon and I are both awake, we lay in bed tossing and turning then decide time to get up. It is suppose to rain today but its not raining yet. : -) Marlon and I decided to get up and talk a walk and he is going to show me around the area to get me familiar with my surroundings. Made a cup of our Caribou coffee and headed out of the hotel. Well you can guess we walked outside and it started to rain, so back inside to get our umbrella. Thank goodness we brought an umbrella to bring with us before we left Ohio.

Walked over to La La Square a shopping mall with grocery. Its Sunday and it doesn't open till 10am. Walked over to train station to see if Starbucks was open. Nope they are not open either. No problem we walked down by the river and it was a very nice walk. The temperature outside this morning was VERY COLD and rainy, my hands felt like they were frozen. Marlon took me to Within one hour of walking it warmed up but it was still raining. the bronze statue of Buddha of the Three Soybeans. This great statue of Buddha is believed to help you accumulate wealth.

A very kind man standing in his doorway, saw us walking and noticed we were having a hard time staying dry under one umbrella. He motioned for me to come here and he brought me out an umbrella : -) I thanked him and away we went walking towards our hotel. I am so impressed that a gentleman we didn't even know gave us an umbrella such polite people. On our way back to hotel we went into McDonald's for breakfast since all the other places were not open yet. When we walked in we saw Troy sitting on a stool eating some pancakes, we ordered and joined him. Everything was great.!!!


We are back at our hotel and getting warmed up to go back out. After talking with the rest of the group they were going to go out today and checking out the area. Marlon and I decided to take off on our own since Marlon knows his way around. Took our umbrellas and headed toward La La Square. The mall had many stores to look through for example: tea shops, clothing stores, Dollar yen store, food places and a grocery store. We went into the tea shop where they were starting the celebration of Sakura (cherry blossum) season. I tasted some tea that was packaged in cherry blossoms very beautiful and tasty. Loved the stores with all the kimono's that were out in some of the stores. Love the art on them and the beauty of them but not the price LOL

Went to the dollar yen store and bought some items needed like a spoons to eat our oatmeal in the mornings. Needed some grocery items so went down in the basement to the grocery and made some purchases of some of the fruit. The fruit is very big, and looks like each piece has been tenderly cared for. Took items back to hotel and took off to explore some more of Utsunomiya.

Our next stop was a shrine called Futarasan Shrine.This is probably the most popular shrine in Utsunomiya. The front is lined by a massive stairway several stories in height before ending at a large temple. From there we stopped at Starbucks and sat down by a big picture window where we drank some coffee to get warmed up and people watch. I felt like we were on display sitting there several Japanese people walked by and were looking at us. In this small town I didn't see any other nationality besides us LOL so sitting where we did was like putting us up on a stage for them to look at us.

Finally we are warmed up and head to a outside mall called Ori Dori. This was a line of stores and places to eat covered by a awning. Marlon bought a Seiko watch for 20 dollars, great deal. While we were shopping the mall was starting to celebrate the Sukura festival. We bought some grilled noodles and chicken and sat down to watch the performance of some musicians. I really enjoyed the show, there was also a variety of displays set up of Japanese dolls which were totally awesome.

Once we left there we headed back to the hotel its 3pm and we are getting tired. Made it back to hotel and took a nap. : -) Later that evening we went out with some of the group to the Wild Barn which had pizza and pasta, food was great. Back to hotel and we are very very tired. Time to relax and watch some TV. Today they did announce that Chile had a earthquake that registered a deadly 8.8 -magnitude earthquake. It struck central Chile early Saturday, ripping apart buildings, highways and bridges and leaving a path of smoky rubble across a long swath of this earthquake-tested country before sending waves rumbling across the Pacific Basin. Hawaii and Okinawa Japan were also under threat. Okinawa is like a 1,000 miles from us so we were safe from the tsunami waves. A tiny tsunami hit a small island far south of Tokyo on Sunday after authorities warned that waves of more than 3 meters (10 ft) could batter Japan's Pacific coast following a massive earthquake in Chile.