Tottori

So Nick and I leave on Friday for Tottori to do the net fishing ceremony that JST does every year. We had no idea what was going to happen this weekend. Many of our co-workers have remained quite after asking many of them what types of things we would be doing that day. I just had a feeling that I should be ready for fish this weekend! One thing that I will never get used to is the driver seat being on the right side of the car. I am so used to standing near the American shotgun seat only to find that its a driver's seat over here in Japan.

It was about a 3-3.5 hour drive. We stopped at some random place to grab a bite to eat. I had a beef bowl. One of the ladies we were riding with asked me if I have been using chop sticks for a long time, because I eat pretty well with them. My answer is of course, no; I hardly with chopsticks. It was nice receiving the compliment.

We arrive at the JST apartment complex. There were many representatives from the different branches from around the world. The ones I spoke to were from a couple branches from America (Detroit and Chicago Engineering Center). We go to our room to find that we are staying in a training room full of futons. It was interesting for what I can say. The reps from Detriot thought the futons were softer than they thought it was going to be. I would have to disagree, I thought our beds would be really soft. It was still comfortable to sleep in.

There were many random treats at the kitchen for us to see. There was a shelf with a bunch of anime figurines and a cabinet that was full of manga and how to communicate basically in other countries.

We also found this machine called the "Rodeo Boy". Apparently it is an exercise machine that is supposed to work your abs and quads. It was fun to ride on at least haha. I found a video on youtube that show cases this piece of machinery in action.

Enjoy!

So we went to bed to wake up to an announcement that net fishing was canceled due to the rainy weather. So what was there left for us to do after driving for so far? Tour the area of course!

The first area that we stopped was at a "Japanese Coffin" as it was described to me. It was this building that rested on top of this giant hill. Inside there were many historical artifacts that dealt with the history of the area. There were also pictures of this area bing used for battle since it had the high ground.

There were many old Japanese agricultural tools inside. On the walls there were pictures of people participating in festivals, commerce, and many other things as well.

At the top of the building we had a very beautiful view of the city and the ocean.

The next stop was back to the apartments so that we could eat a BBQ.

The BBQ was very fun. We cooked all the foods on these mini grills and ate as we cooked. We had hotdogs, cabbage, snail oysters, fish, pumpkin, and potatoes. The eating the fish was interesting cause we ate the fish whole: head, bones, scales, and everything. The thing I thought was more of a clam, when pulled out looked more like a snail. It was tasty. I however burnt myself a little bit while prepping the grill and one of the shells exploded due to the pressure build up inside it.

We walked around and went to many gift shops and tried many more foods!