DYA717 July 9, 2016 Toyama

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• published: 09 Jul 2016
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My last full free day. 6:30 a.m. breakfast at the Takaoka Manten Ekimae Hotel. Besides NATTO, they had some kind of GOYA & pumpkin dish. I was watching some other folks eating their NATTO. Most, like me, mix up the sauce and mustard and pour da good, gooey mess into the rice bowl. Some folks mix ‘um up and eat the mess directly out of the mixing tub. I tried that and I think I’ll do it that way from now on. That way you get all the slimey mess down your throat one time and you actually get less spider webs to fuss around with!  Today was moving day. I checked out of the Takaoka Manten hotel. It started as a cloudy, humid day and it was drizzling a bit. Not a problem, since all the walking I did and train catching was under covered pathways. By the time I got to Toyama city, the rain had stopped. Too early to check in so I dumped my bags at the Toyoko and walked around the 2 departments stores they had at the Toyama station. One was the ESTA department store and they had a 100-yen store called Candles (KYA-N-DO-RU-SU). Didn’t look around the 100-yen store since I didn’t have anything I needed. Next door they had the MARIER department store. They had a restaurant row on the 6th floor so I waited for them to open at 11 a.m. Went into this place called KINEYA. I asked for an English menu and they had one. Got me a lunch set of unagi-tororo and freshly made udon. The waitress knew I didn’t know what was what so she pointed out the small dishes on my tray and said this goes with this and that goes with that -- and watch out for the pepper cause it is hot, at least that’s what I think she explained in Japanese to me! OK, so I followed her instructions. ONO! Then I caught the next shinkansen to Omiya, a 2-hour ride going toward Tokyo. Toyama is a small city so I figured I’d go to the larger city of Omiya. I’ve never been there but I figured get more things to do in Omiya on this cloudy day. Omiya station is a big one and a confusing one. There were many department stores all around the station so I just went BURA-BURA the area. Someone asked me to keep an eye for a small collapsable bag for shopping. Asked around but never found the right kind. Got tired so I went to the 9th floor of the SOGO department store where they had a restaurant row. Had myself a glass of red wine and Hayashi rice for pupu/snack/part-dinner. ONO! Getting late by this time so I jumped back on the shinkansen and got back to Toyama City around 7 p.m. Wow, not much notes but was one long tiring day. Tomorrow, I’m jumping on the shinkansen and go to Tokyo station, transfer to the airport express and jump on one 747 back to the States!