One Week in Japan Utsunomiyia Tower

Today is sunny and highs around 65 F. It feels so good to sit here and look out the window and let the sun shine in on me. Its been pretty gloomy, cold and rainy here the last few days, so I am welcoming the sunshine. : -)
Today I went to do a load of laundry and thought well this $5 washer/dryer is empty think I'll try it. Now this is something I really do not do but yes I did this time. I put all the clothes in and shut the door, no sorting just threw them in and went back to my room. Belinda called and was ready to go and I told her I just put the laundry in. She said well when its done call me, 1 hour later that machine is still doing its thing. GRRR GRRRRRRRR we are ready to go and enjoy this beautiful day. Told Belinda that the machine shows it will be running for another hour and 20 minutes.

Belinda was going to walk down and mail a letter so I told her I would go with her. Together we left the hotel and mailed out her letter at the PO. I saw the place where we ate those great chicken tacos and wanted to get a picture of the front window that had the chicken feet painted on them and find out the name of the place. Marlon has a map of Utsunomiya and wants to place good places to eat on it.  Then he can share with whoever goes to Japan. : -) After I got the pictures I needed we walked towards the hotel and started to pass a McDonalds. Told her my Mom wanted wanted to know if the toys in the kids happy meals were American or Japanese. Went inside and yes they are Japanese toys in them, Belinda had already eaten her lunch so I ordered a chicken nugget kids meal so I could get that toy for my Mom. I got the food to go and together we headed up by the JR train station to find a place to sit in the sun so I could eat. I ate and we talked and enjoyed the sunshine.

Its time to go back to the hotel and that laundry should be done. When I got out of the elevator on the 6th floor went directly to the laundry and it still had 5 minutes to go. Finally it has stopped and I started to fold up the laundry and then Belinda comes to find me. She thought I would have been done by now. : -( At least my clothes are dry and folded and now we can take them back to the room and head out.

We are headed towards Horse Chess Nut Street to get a picture and take a leisurely stroll down the street. On our way to to find this street we stopped at a store that sold basically fabric, but she also sold items that she had made. We shopped in there and picked up a few items and headed back on our way to find this street. Now I hate to complain but the humidity was around 80 today and with the heat I was getting very hot.
Arrived at Horse Chess Nut street but its not pretty right now there are no leaves on the trees but we take pictures anyway and stroll down the street to Hachimanyama Park. We walked for about an hour and finally stopped a young man and asked him where this park was. He told us to follow him and he would show us. I'm thinking day jau vu all over again, we followed the young man but not close because if he tried anything we were going to run and run FAST. He turned us around and so we followed him when he got to the destination he told us to follow that path. He lived in the apartments that were near the park is why he showed us how to get there. ; -D By the time I reach the park and climb stairs I am so hot i feel like I'm going to pass out.  I mean sweat is pouring off me and I'm beat red. My head is spinning and I'm really starting to over heat. Belinda takes me up these steps and we found a place for me to sit down and cool off. Boy the heat is really bothering me.  I get cooled off some and we head up the rest of the flight of steps to the Utsunomiya Tower. We pay the man 2000 yen a piece and get in the elevator to go to the top of the tower. The view of Utsunomiya is beautiful you can see Nikko and Nasu mountains. Took several pictures but with no air conditioning up there I could not stay long I was sweating again and wanted out of there and back down off that elevator.

The park is beautiful but in a couple more weeks there will be blooms on all 700 cherry trees, I bet that would be a sight to see. The park also has approx 2,300 Azalea's in it so you can imagine how beautiful that would be too see. Inside the park also is a suspension bridge that is 150m long and only 1.5m wide. NO I did not go across the bridge that's not my idea of fun.....looked to scary. The park also housed some farm animals which mostly were roosters and chickens. LOL there was also a peacock in there. Time to head out of the park and back to the hotel. On the way out we saw a group of early blooming cherry blossom trees and took some pictures. I'm hot and just want a shower.......and to get cooled off.

We find our way back to the hotel and as we were walking along the river I saw a man fishing and took his picture. A minute later he was reeling in a fish, great catch looks like he has dinner for the night. Finally we are back at the hotel and we go our separate ways. First thing I do is get these clothes off me and hop in the shower ahhhhhhhhhh I feel so much better.

Its 7pm and hubby is  still not home from work, I'm wondering how much longer he will be. Its Friday night and they are not suppose to work overtime today but its obvious he is.  Hubby didn't get home till around 8pm. We got ready and went to the lobby and decided to go with Deb, Troy, Scott and Kirby to a place to eat. Once we got there we decided this is not where we wanted to eat. We all left and Troy said lets go to Chef Bob's and so we did. I can say that the food was great, they had steaks and shrimp etc. We all ordered and ate and enjoyed ourselves talking and eating. When we left we were going to go to this huge dollar store but it was closed. ; -( Went next door to this huge nice grocery and looked around. We are tired and ready to head back to the hotel.....

On the way home we crossed over the Triangle bridge that looks awesome with all the lights.