Japan for Tommy and Junko's wedding

I went to Japan for a week to attend Tommy and Junko's wedding in Nagoya, and then quickly visit friends in Tokyo before flying home to Bangkok. I had a nice flight on Cathay Pacific which included a 40 minute transit in HK....this means it was not so much a transit rather it was a made rush off the plane, run down to security, pass security eventually after a million slow old people hold EVERYONE up, run up the stairs to departures, run down to gate 63 and sit down only seconds before bording starts....and to think we arrived 15 minutes early....imagine if we had arrived ontime!!! Cathay Pacific I really love you, but please make a minumum of 1 hour transits....because I had no time to shop for HK mooncakes at my favourite shop in the airport on either flight this time and it was the dissapointment of my year.....other than that, your inflight catering is amazing, and your selection of movies this time was amazing....thumbs up all round! So it was COLD when we arrived....4 degrees....um no thank you Im staying on the plane and going back to HK.....it was so nice to be back in Japan....where I can speak the language and chilli is not added to everything, and salt is not added to orange juice....although it is added to watermelon but this is another story.....

Here is a picture of Nagoya streets at night



And here is my dinner on the first night....miso ramen...mmmm and this is actually oishii ramen, as opposed to the oishii ramen in Bangkok which is actually oishikunai ramen but is just deceptively called oishii ramen...it is indeed the worst ramen in the history of the world....but this ramen was GOOD!!! mmmmm it's nice to be home!!! Although that said, I was travelling with my Thai friend James who insisted that this was not that much better than Bangkok ramen.....hmmmmm I think the excessive amount of chilli has ruined his ramen taste buds.....oh yeah, so James really wanted to go to Japan, so considering how much he has helped me out in Bangkok, I figured showing him around for a week in Japan is the least I can do to repay him, and it was good to have someone to travel with as well.






On Thursday we went to Inuyama to see my host brother Hide and his wife momo and 2 daughters. We had a great time going to the shrine and the castle and then lunch! It kinda started snowing just a bit which was cool too!!




For dinner we went to an AWESOME miso katsu place. Miso katsu is famous in the Naoya area, and this one was really good. I had a set, and the dish on the top left is the miso katsu....mmmmm sooooo good.




And here it is up close in all its glory.....



The next day I went to the wedding and it was a Japanese wedding ceremony...which meant it took 20 minutes!!! The 2 ji kai was also cool- we went to an italian restaurant and there was a lucky prize which I won.....a WII!!!! I dont use a WII but perhaps I will have to start!!!

The next day we got up early to shinkansen to Tokyo. We got a perfect view of Mt Fuji which was cool, and lucky considering I had a tourist to entertain too....although Thai tourists are perhaps the easiest people to entertain whilst travelling...eat and shop, shop and eat....eat and eat, shop and shop....and so on and so forth.....simple!

In Tokyo in between the shopping and eating, I caught up with B&G friends and we ate....it was so good to see them all!




And caught up with more B&G friends and Hitotsubashi friends and we ate.....this time okonomiyaki at a place that was on tv for its food....here's me trying to sneek a photo of the restaurant without anyone seeing....



The food was really good...salad with goma dressing

Negi okonomiyaki....serious negi happening there....

And hiroshima style okonomiyaki....Im glad this shop opt to serve the superior Hiroshima style and not the inferior Osaka style.....

And this thing was this chilli dish which caused a lot of discussion and to everyone dissapointment turned out to be just this....

And then dessert.....icecream and mochi....mmmmmm

On the last day we went to Hibiki at Marunouchi which was really really nice. I caught up with my zemi for a nice meal before leaving Tokyo the next day. It was great to see them all! Also caught up with Iyotani sensei which was good....although I did get the hard line as to when I was going to start working....and don't you even dare become and English teacher or he will "not be happy"....hmmmm ok sensei......understood......sorry

Leaving from Narita I decided to picture the JAL check-in because there is a good chance it will be no more soon....sad...kinda....but actually I like ANA more....

Flying home and another mad rush through HKIA to make my connection to BKK.....my flight to BKK had the MOST amazing airline food I have ever had....you see, when they were preparing I could smell sweet and sour, and sweet and sour pork is my dream airline meal.....but unfortunately the 2 options were fish and chicken....so I was left with the task of guessing which would be the sweet and sour....I took the fish......fail.......but the fish was this pasta which was absolutely amazing!!! It was so good I wanted to ask for a second....well actually the ladies sitting opposite me were both in the process of being air sick and didnt take a meal, so I wanted to ask for their's please....but I thought better of that and decided against it! Wow....Catahy inflight catering I HEART YOU VERY VERY VERY MUCH:D

So that was Japan in a nutshell....nice to have some cooler weather and be back home again!