Food Roulette

Here are the exciting dining adventures I had in Japan!

JAL served a teriyaki salmon and rice dish on our flight to Tokyo. It was delicious. That is all. 6/10

Upon our arrival, we were pretty hungry, so we stopped at a noodle house inside the train station near(ish) our hotel. These kinds of shops have a vending machine outside, where you select what you would like, put in money, and get a slip that you take to the counter and they give you your food. Marshall took some time looking at the pictures and bought himself some curry and then some yakisoba for Mike. I decided to play Food Roulette. This is a game I have invented myself where I order something at random and hope for the best. I selected an item that was only 4oo yen. There was no picture. It turned out to be yakisoba with fried meat. I think the fried meat was octopus tentacles based on what I saw when I bit into it. But I have no idea. I didn't win, but I also definitely did not lose food roulette. 4/10

We wanted to see if McDonald's had any Japan-specific foods, but the menu was the same. I had an egg mcmuffin. 6/10

At Tokyo DisneySea, I had the Toy Story Special for lunch at the Mexican restaurant called Miguel's. It was not in any way Mexican, but it tasted alright. 6/10

The rice was a little Woody, though.

We found a tiny shop that served gyoza and ramen, my two favorite Japanese foods. It was excellent! 8/10

One of the very rare breakfast restaurants in the entire country, Jade5, almost killed me with a garnish of rosemary in my cranberry lemonade. We made it through, because I clearly saw it before I drank. 2/10

Before we were presented with menus.

Shabu-gen. Marshall's parents recommended this place, and Marshall and Mike had been there before. It's just Japanese hotpot. However, since the last time the Hurson family went to Shabu-gen, they decided to shift their clientele for a more, upscale, customer base. Over $100 bucks a person for me to cook my own food. Admittedly, there was more food than one person could eat, but since taking home leftovers isn't a thing in Japan, we actually just ate until we felt sick and still skipped dessert. However, I did eat truffles (which kinda tasted like dirt) and actual gold leaf. Can't say that I'll ever be doing that again. 6/10

GOLD LEAF

Had bento on the Shinkansen. BTW I love the Shinkansen. Train travel  (esp. bullet trains) is the way to go. Get on it, America! 8/10 because of the amazingness of the train

In Hiroshima, we went to Little Mermaid Cafe and ate pastries. 8/10

In Osaka, we visited a dedicated ramen shop and it was way better than the ramen I eat at home. 9/10 I also tried some Japanese candy from the convenience store. It was called Crunky. It had similarities to Whoppers, but without the satisfying sizzle. 3/10

Starbucks serves a Peach Milk Tart, which tastes just as confusing as you'd think. 4/10



I tried potato chips and it turns out they were butter flavored. Not the best. 4/10

Okonomiyaki is a Japanese stuffed pancake made with egg and was birthed in Osaka, so eating it there was a treat. Marshall liked it way more than I did. Mike didn't want to try it. I tried the sampler of 3, which included pork, octopus, and corn. 4/10 Marshall had Hiroshima style, which included noodles. 6/10 for Hiroshima style

Johson burger, milkshake, Marshall, and country music

Johson Burgers in Himeji. Interestnig take on Western burgers, but not bad. Had a "craft" beer, also not bad. 5/10






Yakitori place in Himeji. JAPANESE FRIED CHICKEN IS SO DELICIOUS WHY DID NOBODY EVER TELL ME THIS BEFORE. 10/10 (All the other food at the restaurant was meh.)

Baskin-Robbins in Japan has a new flavor promotion. They sell Pikachu ice cream and it's yellow and supposed to be 3 berry flavored and it's funny that they consider pineapple a berry. I hated it. 0/10 A full minute after trying the Pikachu sample, I was trying to order my Daiquiri Ice (the girl at the counter made me sample it because she wasn't sure I knew what I was getting into. She kept asking Marshall if I was sure I wanted that flavor because it's very 'bitter'. lol) POP ROCKS began fizzling in my throat. There were pop rocks in the pikachu ice cream but they didn't fizzle right away, so I nearly choked. -5/10 for Piakachu

Thanks for reading about my food adventures!

My Scott's Cheap Flights membership is officially worth it.

Hi everybody! Back in late Spring, I got an email from Scott's Cheap Flights (#notsponsored) about an amazing flight deal. To celebrate the new route from Seattle to Tokyo NONSTOP, Japan Airlines was having a sale. A big sale. A super duper giant sale. Brace yourself.

$466. Round. Trip.

So for Marshall's birthday, we decided to go to Japan! Along with us was Michael, Marshall's brother.

August 22. SeaTac airport. Out flight was at 2pm, so we arrived around 11:30, which turned out to be too early. With Japan Airlines, they don't even open their counter for check-in until two hours before departure. They do offer online check in with your phone, but we were checking bags. So we waited in line. Check-in was super fast and simple.

My bag was the lightest at only 10.0kg. Heck yes!

After checking in, our agent informed us that the departure time, 2:05 pm, was still set and there was no delay, and that boarding would begin at 1:50. At first I thought she said 1:15. But no, 1:50.

We waited at the gate area until boarding began, at 1:50pm. The passengers on our flight were the absolute best. This is because they don't crowd the gate before it's their turn to board! This is a huge pet peeve of mine when traveling. But here, everyone calmly waited at their seat, or up against the wall far away from the would-be crowd. It was so smooth and easy and as a result our flight left on time. I repeat: our flight left ON TIME after the boarding process began 15 minutes prior to departure.

Us, having boarded the plane in 10 minutes.

Once on the plane, I noticed the windows 1) were bigger and 2) didn't have a shade. Beneath each window was a button and you could choose how dark to make your window. This was really nice. The crew controls the windows mid-flight to simulate night time, which was excellent on the return flight when sleep is necessary, but a little challenging on the Westbound flight since we needed to remain awake to avoid jetlag.


The lavatory had a bidet. I was not brave enough to try an airplane bidet.

We landed in Tokyo at 4:15 pm on Friday afternoon.

Something is starting to look familiar...

After our adventure at Hot Water Beach, we slept soundly and arose the next morning to drive to Auckland, where we said farewell to Marshall's parents and brother. Marshall and I spent the afternoon with my college friend Kirsten. It was the break we needed!

The following morning we drove up to Paihia, a cute town in the Bay of Islands. The next two days were nearly identical to the two days Marshall and I spent in Paihia in 2014. We took a coach tour up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost tip of New Zealand. It is at the point where the Tasman Sea and the Pacific Ocean meet, but do not mix. The Maori people believe that it is here that the spirits of the dead leap off the earth to return to their ancestral home. It is a very special and sacred place, and I enjoyed returning there (while I'm still alive).



We then went sandboarding! I forget how hard climbing a sand dune is.






Our final excursion of the trip was to take a cruise through the Bay of Islands to Hole in the Rock. The hole is quite small, and sometimes the water is too rough for a ship to pass through. Our Captain said that if he doesn't feel 100% confident in his ability to get us through safely, he won't do it. But, he could get us pretty close for some pictures.





Then, as we were starting to back away from the hole, the Captain punched through!





What an exciting way to end our trip. Our last task was the long drive back to the airport, and then try to get some sleep on the 14 hour flight back to Vancouver.

Hobbitses and Hauntings

A short drive from Rotorua is Hobbiton, the set used from the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit movies as the Shire. I'm explaining this to anyone who might not know, but I know you all already know this.

Our tour was at 1pm, so we had plenty of time to get up, pack, and get there.

Really, words don't describe how neat Hobbiton is, so here are a bunch of pictures.



After Hobbiton, we made the rather long drive to the Waitomo Caves Hotel, situated within a km of the well known Waitomo glow worm caves. I know, I usually find a cool alternative to some of these really touristy places, and last time I went to NZ I did. I went to a family-owned farm with a cave on the property, paid them $20 USD, and they let me and Marshall traipse around and see some glow worms. BUT there are three caves in Waitomo, and people have said that this experience is really worth it. Also, Marshall and Nolan went black water rafting.

What is black water rafting you ask? It's inner tubing down a river through a cave without lights. It's not for me. Not even a little bit.

Wait! Before I go into details of my awful, terrible, no good time in multiple caves, I need to go back to the hotel. You see, our wonderful travel agent Audra warned us when she booked that the Waitomo Caves hotel might not be as comfortable or as nice as the other hotels. We were expecting a little roadside motel or something similar, but when we pulled up the driveway we were blown away, in a good way. This hotel was spectacular! It was a very old mansion and clearly used to be a fancy resort for very wealthy New Zealanders a hundred years ago, and now it's a moderately priced hotel. It was so fancy and magnificent, sitting on a bluff overlooking the valley that leads to the caves. We couldn't wait to get inside.

Then we went inside.

This place is the Overlook Hotel. I'm not kidding. It's legit haunted. If my uncle started running around with an axe I would not have been surprised. Looking back at the outside of the hotel, it looks like the Overlook so I don't know how I let myself be fooled right away.





The next morning we went to the caves. Marshall and Nolan did the rafting while the rest of us did a tour of two of the caves. The first cave, the Ruakuri cave, was a typical cave, so naturally, I hated every second of it. I spent twenty minutes silently crying while everyone else oohed and ahhed about cave walls. The only interesting structure in the cave was the ribbon stalactite, which I had never seen before, despite being dragged around caves on multiple continents. Ribbons form when the general shape of the cave is an A-frame, so mineral-rich water runs down the wall before dripping, creating a ribbon or curtain shaped stalactite rather than a cone.




The second cave in our tour was the famous Waitomo cave. This is the cave with the glow worms. Except at first it's just a regular cave. Admittedly, the cavern was much larger, so I was less in a panic as I was during the Ruakuri tour, but still nothing of note. To exit the caves, we climb aboard these little boats and silently sail through a very small cavern, where millions of glow worms light up the ceiling like constellations. That was pretty cool. We had to remain completely silent or else we might hurt or even kill the worms. The boats captains pulled us in the dark on ropes so as not to even disturb the water.

We finished our tours around the same time as Nolan and Marshall finished theirs. We piled into separate cars and made our way to the Coromandel Peninsula. My car stopped at the Alphra Lavenders Farm. We met a friendly man who owned the farm with his wife as an after-work hobby. We love supporting local businesses, so we bought a few lavender products and explored the grounds a bit.



We made it to the Coromandel just in time for low tide. That sounds like a weird time to want to arrive at a beach, but on the Coromandel is a beach called Hot Water Beach. Underneath the sand lies a natural hot spring, and at low tide, if you dig a hole, it will fill with hot water and you can have a personal hot tub. Mom said this turned out to be the highlight of the trip for her, so it's good we made it! All of this happened in two days, and so that night, we slept pretty hard.