Poppies and Pottery

I was thinking about going on a nature hike on Saturday and invite a buddy on a virtual hike, but it rained like there's no tomorrow the night before. There was even a flood warning issued while I was deep into dreamland. So, out goes the nature hike idea, since I probably would've ended up with a muddy butt.

I came up with another plan to go visit a flower park where poppies should be starting to bloom it's a bit early for a field of fully bloomed poppies.

My buddy called in for the video chat just as I got to the flower park and we started the tour. I showed her the field with poppies. Mainly the red poppies were blooming in the lower field. There were pink and yellow ones blooming in the upper field but not enough to cover the entire field.

I was explaining to my buddy about how May 5th is Children's Day and carp were hung, the biggest one representing the dad, next biggest one the mom, and the rest, the kids. I may have omitted saying that they were streamers, so she asked if they didn't start getting smelly. You know in cartoons when characters are confused, a question mark pops up above their heads? That was me. Then it dawned on me that she thought they hung real fish, not carp-shaped streamers. I was cracking up so hard. Here I was, with headphones on, cracking up in the middle of the path, looking like a lunatic. I finally caught my breath and explained that they didn't hang real fish, but streamers and I showed her the streamers that were strung across the field. She finally got what I was saying. I had a good laugh, tho.

I moseyed up the path to the playground at the top of the hill where there was a Godzilla slide. There's a little choo choo train that'll give you a ride up the hill, but the line was way too long to get on the train. It's really cute, tho. I was like, I present, Godzilla. But what really tickled her, was the phone stand where people can set up their phones to take selfies. She also loved the Godzilla vending machine.

I then took a path that took me through the woody area and that's when we managed to get another buddy joining our call. The three of us had fun yakking away while I was meandering along the path that leads to the parking lot where I left my scooter. I went back to the field to show the other buddy the poppies and carp streamers while she was told the funny story about the carp.

It came time to end the call. It was getting close to my buddies' bedtime and my phone was almost out of juice.

It was fun doing a video chat while I was out and about. We need to do this again sometime.

I stopped by an onsen place where the water they use for the bath is real hot spring water. Considering that there are other spas that offer more facilities, this place really isn’t worth another visit. Don’t get me wrong, the water was nice and my skin felt silky smooth after soaking in the bath, but this place didn’t have an outdoor bath. For those who don’t want to travel far and deal with traffic or anything, then this place might be good to enjoy the real onsen experience.

Sunday took me out on a bus tour to Mashiko, an area renowned for pottery. There was a fair going on where vendors from all over came to sell their wares. The tour got me out bright and early (sunrise is much earlier now). There was traffic getting there, but at least it was flowing. It wasn't a constant stop-and-go, but still, we got to the fair an hour or so later than originally planned. But, we still got our 5 hours of browsing around before we had to leave.

On the way, the wild wisteria was exploding in the trees. Soon, the tall buildings disappeared and the landscape changed to rice paddies. We ain’t in Tokyo anymore, bud.

The first thing on the agenda was lunch. Most of the restaurants we saw around there seemed to be shops that served buckwheat noodles. I'm not a huge fan of that, but we found a stalls selling fried chicken and pot stickers. I heard one of the vendors announcing that the chicken will be done in a few minutes. I got in line for the chicken and my buddy got in line for the pot stickers. They hit the spot.

The shops were spread out around the entire area. I saw a lot of beer mugs and cups but I didn't see many goblets that I could use for wine, especially ones that didn't cost an arm and a leg. I found one that I liked just before we had to get back to the bus.

We saw a few stalls serving coffee and lemonade. I don't think I've seen so many lemonade stands before. I guess lemonade is getting more popular here. The Japanese really like their iced coffee. We came across a stand selling gelato. Of course I had to have some ice cream after walking around looking at all the stalls.

It was interesting to see all the different types of shapes and styles of the pottery displayed. There were several artists showing off their work at the fair. They were fun to look at but the prices they were asking for were out of my reach. The buddy I went on the bus tour with saw this cute round cat she really liked, but it was the size of a beach ball. There were smaller versions, but they didn't look as cute. My buddy ended up buying an antique box. She saw it when we were roaming around and said she was going to buy it if it were still there after we were done touring the shops. Needless to say that the box was still there.

I went more for the experience and wasn't planning on getting anything. But I found the cute goblet, so I was happy.

The traffic on the way back was kinda worse. While it was flowing, it was flowing at a much slower pace than in the morning. I brought a bag of chips to tide us over. Good thing we got some extra chopsticks when we got our food. We enjoyed the chips "neet" style, using chopsticks. Kept our fingers clean, since the chips I brought was smoky tandoori flavored. Originally, I was supposed to be home by 9pm but it was past 11pm by the time I finally got home. But since I was off the next two day because of the holidays, I had plenty of time to rest up and recuperate.

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