As the week progressed, Hubby and friends worked quite a bit more and Wifey shopped quite a bit more. We all got together each day for Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner though!
Some highlights of the days-o-work include getting to re-visit Fukoka, wifey's favorite pizza joint ... (and remembering to photograph our food there!).
Diabla Pizza
Apple and Cabbage Pizza
Four Cheese pizza minus basil plus tomato sauce
Pizza with him, egg, and mushroom.
Full tummies!
One day, I had the opportunity to enjoy shopping with Ms. M, one of hubby's coworkers. We got so caught up enjoying our time and a brief coffee outing that the rest of the team had lunch without us ... cell phone coverage is errr ... spotty at best. Still needing to eat lunch, we ventured down to Fuji Grant mall's food court and ordered the following ... by pointing at mock-ups of the meals. Our google translate failed us when we attempted to read the menu.
Friday night we ventured out and about after Hubby finished with work for the day. We had dinner at a local Mexican-ish restaurant called "Greed Spice". Here the menu options were pretty simple ... Taco Rice or Taco Noodle. Within these, we had the option of adding various 'extra' toppings and choosing our spicey level. Perhaps Wifey was just craving some western food, but Greed Spice was amazing!
After Greed Spice, we went into a local Pachinko Parlor, where Hubby proceeded to lose exactly 100 yen and Wifey proceded to refuse to gamble exactly 100 yen and trade in her ball bearings for a small snack food item. We don't understand Pachinko. We had been told is something like an American Pinball game, but appears closer to Plinko from the price is right. The parlor is loud, smokey, and altogether pleasant IMO.
After leaving our brief Pachinko adventure we decided to go sing Karaoke. We saw a bright sign which clearly indicates this was available! YAY!
Going inside there was no hostess so we kept wandering back until a Japanese lady approached us kind of freaking out about our shoes. We are pretty accustomed to the cultural norm that you remove your shoes in many places in Japan. We always look for the pile of shoes right next to a platform and add ours as we go. Here, there was no such pile. We followed the attendant back to the entryway and discovered show lockers pictured below: We began removing ours and storing them in the lockers while discussing needing a room for Karaoke. This, however, seemed to be impossible. We're not sure if Karaoke is reservation only here or if they were just full for the night, however, we ended up leaving without wowing everyone with our musical prowess. Alas .... there's always next trip ... maybe.
Men don't prefer to spend time shopping. While I have known a few exceptions to this rule, none were present in Iwakuni this week. Creating a good-for-everyone solution, us ladies went out and about one morning on our own to get our shop on! We hit up the mall and grocery store with our google translate apps in hand!
Soup Spoons
Bowls made in Japan
Smiley face trash cans
Ninja Tabs
Wifey doesn't eat curry ... Hubby does ... apparently its popular enough in Japan to even warrant an instant rice cup version.
On our way back to the hotel after the mall, we stopped at a coffee shop for some quick caffeine and conversation!
can you see wifey on the left of this pic?
We ordered Coffee Jelly from the Japanese language menu based mostly on the picture of ice cream sitting atop coffee. Can't go wrong with Ice Cream and Coffee right!?
We ordered Coffee Jelly from the Japanese language menu based mostly on the picture of ice cream sitting atop coffee. Can't go wrong with Ice Cream and Coffee right!? Well upon further inspection, the "jelly" part of Coffee Jelly referred to essentially jello. We'd just assumed it was a weird/bad English translation by Google. Yeah, it wasn't.
I do recommend Hand Drip to anyone who likes actual coffee flavors. Since I'm typically looking for something a bit more along the lines of #Ilikealittlecoffeeinmy milk ... it wasn't ideal for me. The ice cream was great though.
The Chicken Shack is a restaurant complex about 30 minutes by car outside Iwakuni. The correct name of this complex is Irori Sanzoku, however I've only ever heard Americans refer to it by the nick-name "Chicken Shack". This nickname is so persuasive that it even pulls up on google maps! I struggle to properly describe the spectacle that is Chicken Shack. Imagine you are curving around a two lane road coast to the Japanese coast outside of town. There aren't really any street lights or traffic, and you are enjoying your drive through the country side. Then, all of a sudden, you turn a corner and see the following:
There are lights and music and activity everywhere. On the side of the small country road in the middle of nowhere. The first time Hubby and I saw the Chicken-shack, we were attempting to drive from Iwakuni to Hiroshima .... jokes on us, its in the opposite direction and were blown away by the surprise of it all. It was several days later before we went back and ate here for the first time, but enjoyed doing so greatly.
This year several friends joined us for dinner at the Chicken Shack. We ate at the restaurant to the left of the main entrance and enjoyed sitting around a log bar on bar-stools. (i.e. not-Japanese style sitting on the floor). The most famous dish served here is a teriyaki chicken. Honestly, I think it is over hyped. We are big fans of the beef dish that you cook at your own table. See video of the deliciousness below:
The chicken from which Chicken Shack is named:
Gyoza:
Beef awaiting cooking:
Rice ball filled with rice, seaweed, salted plums, and tuna.
Everyone were great sports in smiling for the camera!
After finishing our dinner, we walked around the complex while some of our friends shopped in the nearby shops. Here's our video tour:
On our way to the car, we started noticing a particular Christmas tree which was filled with small paper ornaments. Of course, we add to add our own to the tree. We're pretty sure based on google translate, context, and the one English item on the tree you're supposed to put your Christmas Wish on the tree. We copied a Spanish language ornament with our family "we were here".
Dinner at Fukuoka. We visited Fukuoka on our last day in Iwakuni last year. It was a breath of fresh, non-Japanese food after a week of very traditional eating. Remembering the Pizza fondly we were excited to return and bring our friends along for the ride. We attempted to eat here 3 different times this trip before successfully making a reservation and having dinner. The pizza was so good ... I didn't manage to get a photo! Seriously THAT GOOD!
The 'mall' near our hotel includes a food court. This food court is really just one restaurant without an English menu. Good times. The food was fantastic though!
Wifey also tried out a coffee shop while Hubby was away at work one day. She thought she ordered like a coffee float. Ya know, coffee with ice cream on top? Yeah, When they say "Coffee Jelly" ... that's secret code for coffee jello. It wasn't too bad. Wifey at the top half mixed with the ice cream and opted to skip the bottom half.
