Day 22 Tochigi City
by Donna Charles on Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 3:47am
Rick and Teresa were right on time as scheduled and we are on our way to another adventure while here in Japan. Marlon is happy he gets to attend this adventure with me. Teresa had made us up a goodie bag which was so nice and thoughtful of her. There were 2 bottles of water, granola bars, candy etc. Thanks Teresa again so thoughtful the water came in handy later on in the day : -)
Marlon and I enjoyed the scenery on the way to Ashikaga Flower Park which is our first destination. They paid our way into the flower park and the beauty the awaited us all was wonderful. The smell of fresh flowers was a smell I have been waiting on the smell of spring in the air : -) The first thing we see is a bright red and white tulip garden and with the sunshine wow that surely put a smile on everybody's face. I knew this was going to be a special day with friends. We walked around the many beautiful flowers taking lots of pictures of the beauty that surrounds us. We saw turtles out enjoying themselves in the pond and ducks swimming around. One pond was full of tulips placed strategically throughout the pond what a wonderful idea !!!!! We sat for a moment and enjoyed the view.
Around 1pm it was lunchtime we were all getting hungry. We each ordered our food and Marlon and I shared a bowl of odon noodles with tempura. After we ate Teresa and I had been eying the wisteria ice cream they were promoting. The guys did not want any and said they would take a taste of ours. : -) The purple icecream flavored with wisteria was GREAT. Don't know if Marlon really liked it he only took a couple of licks from the cone and i ate the rest.
Shopped at the Wisteria Story shop and purchased a few items. Teresa bought me a phone charm that is so cute.. its a Japanese lantern with Japanese writing on it and some purple wisteria so cute, I immediately put it on my purse. : -) thanks Teresa so thoughtful of you......
We are now on our way to Tochigi City and we are so excited to be going. Upon our arrival we the first thing you noticed was the stores had old Japanese style fronts on them. Teresa and I enjoyed shopping in the many shops along the way. We did go into a place that sold Japanese style shoes and we each bought a pair of shoes for $10 each. We are both loving our new flip flops!! We also went into a unique store that sold handmade brooms and not like we have here in the USA. Pictures will provide more facts about the brooms. Rick and Teresa were on a mission to take us somewhere special to them. Marlon and I followed them to a coffee house that sold a variety of things. While we were shopping they ordered us coffee. Rick came and got us and the coffee was sitting on a picnic type table. We all sat down and enjoyed a nice cup of coffee. The coffee was not just a cup sitting on the table it was well displayed and very inviting. The coffee was very good, we all talked about where we were going next. Finished my coffee and made my purchases which were wrapped like a gift as all the Japanese do when buying something from their store.
Heading towards the water canal in Tochigi City Teresa stops and buys some food to feed the fish and hands it to me. I thanked her and we are now walking along the beautiful canal. There are several shops along this canal also which included a huge farmers market with lots of fresh fruits and veggies : -) There was a store that a lady had made origomi rabbits and owls etc we stopped and went into look. Teresa made a purchase and we are all walking the canal again feeding the fish as we go. ; -) At the end of the walk was a shop that Teresa and Rick had been in before and had purchase some of their Art. We went in and they remembered them from 5 years ago which is amazing. We all talked and got our pictures taken as a group with them. Time to head home now towards Utsunomiya. What a beautiful day this has been.
When we arrived in Utsunomiya Rick and Teresa wanted to know if we had dinner plans and well no we hadn't thought about dinner yet. They decided to take us to a place called the Flying Gardens. The place was nice with great prices and food. We all made our purchases and Marlon and I ordered a small bottle of sake to share. Sake is not my favorite drink but I can drink it. : -) I like flavored better. We bought their dinner but that no way is payment for such a wonderful day with 2 great people.
Thanks Rick and Teresa for a beautiful trip today, what a great way to spend a Saturday with friends.
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