Sunday, October 25, 2009

How do you entertain yourself over a rainy weekend?


To celebrate our anniversary coming in a few weeks, we drove north for a short stay at a high-rise hotel for the weekend. We had ANOTHER bout of awful stormy dreadful weather the whole time, so what else was there to do, but alternate between our two favorite loves of sleeping and eating?

We also made this amazing discovery in our hotel room. Yes, in addition to a mini-bar, room service, eight channels of wacky game shows and telenovelas, some Japanese hotels offer the Pillow Menu...
So after a rejuvenating night's sleep absorbing negative ions, our time looked something like this...

I thought this pig head soup was an urban legend...

but yes, that is a real swine head in there.

I thought it might be a rubber prop they just float in there for shock factor, so I decided to inquire in my very broken and weird Japanese. It came out something like this, " Excuse me, sir... um... er... is there every day a new face that you deliver into the bath?" The very patient and intuitive chef assured me they did.

After a little pig snout, we helped ourselves to the noodle bar.
I've come to realize that Americans are quite impoverished when it comes to noodle dishes. The photograph just doesn't do justice to the grandeur and intimidation of all the varieties out there. You could create virtually any kind of Asian noodle bowl you wanted including Japanese soba, Okinawan Soba, Vietnamese, Chinese, hot noodles, cold noodles, and the list goes on. There was a multitude of soup broths to choose from (beef, chicken, spicy chicken, fish, etc) and toppings and add-ins. We had to hang around as inconspicuously as possible and spy on other people to learn the "proper" way to do it, having little experience with noodle bars on our own.

Our adventurous eating for the weekend out of the way, we sought out and enjoyed a little of this...


Followed by some more of this...

Then a go around of ... Okinawan brown sugar crepe with brown sugar ice cream
and some Korean BBQ


Stay tuned for the sinister looking thing that came out of this guy. It actually made my list of top Spooky Sites of 2009, just in time for Halloween.

So enough about us, how do YOU like to spend a rainy weekend?

9 comments:

Chris and Amy said...

I think today was the laziest rainy Sunday I've ever had. I was supposed to participate in a triathlon relay today, but it was cancelled and in its place I did NOTHING! I watched way too much TV (I got completely hooked on Glee and am loving the second season of Damages). I also tried to judge the weather so I would get least blown away when walking the dog. Maybe I would have been more productive if the hubby was in town, but maybe we would have just been lazy together. :)

Kirsten said...

Wow, looks like you had some good food. The noodle bar is pretty neat!
On rainy weekends I like to clean and organize (if I'm home) and or course cook and eat!

Stacie said...

LoL...that was great...the pig head makes the dish! Actually, the pillow menu is pretty cool! We haven't had rain so much as snow...but when we drive down the mountain, the sun shines and we spent this weekend looking at Earthships and the Rio Grande Gorge...the sun was warm and wonderful! Glad you guys got away and has some fun!

Mary Thompson said...

Thanks for the comment on my blog. OMG, the pig head soup is freaking me out! I can't stop looking at it.

On rainy weekends I like to read or catch up on boring stuff like laundry, cleaning, etc. ;)

Leyla A. said...

Love your blog too! Great photos, I love all the photos - every picture tells a story. I have great photos from Cochon 555 event this year in Chicago.

I have great pics of a pig being slaughtered http://www.flickr.com/photos/leyla_arsan/3561689376/

I look forward to reading your blog more!

Miss Footloose said...

I wouldn't mind a rainy weekend like yours! Great food and even the pighead is a winner, at least for story and photo value!

Just stumbled upon your blog. I've lived as an expat in foreign countries for years, but never in Japan, although I visited there once for a couple of very short days to have at least some general visual impression of the country rather than what I see on TV.

So, I know, well, nothing. So, ever curious, I'm looking forward to reading more of your blog.

Miss Footloose
www.lifeintheexpatlane.blogspot.com

Abi said...

I think even France drew the line at a whole pig's head floating around...

Are you tempted to try making the dish at home ;)

Fly Girl said...

Umm I've heard of goat heads soup but it doesn't actually have the goat head floating around in it! That is wild! I rather like that pillow menu though. We actually celebrated out anniversary last weekend by closing a high end restaurant down with friends but that doesn't count because it wasn't rainy. On rainy weekends, we like to either go to the movies or Netflix ourselves into a stupor on the couch. Not nearly as exciting as yours but I don't think we have pig heads soup in Chicago..

Lots in Costa Rica said...

I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I think I will leave my first comment. I don’t know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.

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