We Love Trying New Restaurants

I walked into the kitchen a few days ago and found this:

Do you think this means we have been eating out too much lately? 

Yokohama Part Two

More on Yokohama! One of the good things found there (if not the best thing) is it's huge, and highly authentic China Town. Here are the pictures of a light lunch we had in a restaurant there. They are known for the gyoza with the lattice.  This lunch set was reasonably priced, but in the future I think we will stick with eating different types of dumplings from the vendors on the street. 

Louis is smiling here because he knew I was going to share my white rice with him.

 Also located in Yokohama is the Kirin beer village. It has a beer factory that you can tour. Sadly, when we went it was under construction and therefore closed. I guess google translate missed that part when we checked the website before we left...

Just because the factory tour was shut down didn't mean we did not get to see any sights. We found this  shrine on the way back to the train station. 

These things are everywhere. The good thing about this one was it had sign with an explanation about what it was in English nearby. I have to admit, I do not ever read these explanations, I just take their pictures. That way when I am old and have nothing to do, I can look back and learn the history.

Where there is a "beer village" there is beer. This is true in Yokohama. There are small breweries all over the place. They even have a special "Beer Map" that we now carry with us when we go. At Bay Brewing I have found a beer that I have come to really like. It is smooth and tastes like cloves. Delicious. It is called Gingakogen / Weizen. The first part of the name is the bar that brewed it. The first time I tried it I made the mistake of getting the small glass for 600 yen. 

The second time I was smart and got the "big" glass for 950 yen. 

We could tell this place was the real deal because you could see where the beer is brewed.

This amazing meat platter was from another brewery. It was fantastic, and only around 3,500 yen. Lou and I shared. I would go back just for a plate of the garlic mashed potatoes. You can see them hiding under the chicken in the picture.

Yokohama is also filled with a ton of parks.

With turtles in them.

I think this is funny because there are restaurants in China town that have tanks in their windows filled with turtles that look just like these, but they are for eating not viewing. 

A final noteworthy thing about Yokohama is that a lot of their bathrooms have pretty toilet paper. 

Only in Japan. 

Acclimating

I think I have begun to acclimate to life in Japan. I know this because last week, when Louis and I were out, I saw a van driving on the road and said, "Oh wow! That van is huge!" And then quickly realized that the "huge" sized van was actually a "normal" sized mini-van in the States. There it is. In regards to vehicle size, what I once considered mini, I now consider huge.

And because I can't write a post without a picture, I will leave you with this: 

You know, just a small child.... out on his usual, Sunday afternoon bike ride... alone... stopping at a busy intersection to get a drink from the vending machine while waiting for his buddies.... Nothing out of the ordinary in Japan. 

Yokohama, Part One

I have been putting off writing this post on Yokohama, a water front city near Tokyo, for quite awhile now. Louis and I really like Yokohama. We have gone there almost every weekend for the past month. Yokohama has SO much to do, many places to see, and countless restaurants. Therefore, I had to go through many pictures and chose which ones I wanted to put on here. Hence, the procrastination. We have plans to try a new restaurant in Yokohama this weekend, so I had to get through at least some of this Yokohama stuff before acquiring even more. So here goes!

We got off the train, saw a Starbucks, and got a coffee. While leaving Starbucks, we realized that we had made a mistake, as we had walked past a place serving pie without getting any. So we walked back  a block or two, and got some. Aparantly this place is also in New York City. 

Chocolate Cream Pie. 

Then we walked around the waterfront, and headed to the mini theme park there. 

On the way we saw this large, old boat named the Nippon Maru. It was open for tours but we opted out.

We decided to ride the ferris wheel. It was a very windy day which made me very nervous. I didn't look around a lot.

Louis wasn't nervous at all.

I managed to smile and look around a little bit. 

Some weird sign in the ferris wheel booth...

There were great views!

Especially of the bay.

While up there, we noticed a Ramen Noodle Museum just a few blocks away. So we went!

They had a whole history of the making and development of what we call "ramen noodles" in the states. (NOTE* Real ramen is NOTHING like the ramen we buy dry at the grocery store in the states. I honestly don't even know why they have the same name, they are so different.)

So many flavors of ramen!!

A few of the favorite flavors of noodles we saw:

If I remember correctly, the man who invented ramen noodles was in his 40's when he came up with the idea, so his motto is never give up!

Here I am posing with a giant cup of noodles. No, I don't know who or what the stuffed animal chicken is for.

On our way to the restaurant, we walked through a mall. One store had lots of crazy snacks!

We saw this place, Leonard's, and stopped to get a donut. The sign said that Leonard's is found mainly in Hawaii. 

The donut was creamed filled and delicious. 

Once we made it to the restaurant, we ordered beers. These two cost us 2,200 yen.

The BBQ we ordered was SO good! The portions on the other hand were Japanese sized. It left me missing Kansas City BBQ.

We then high tailed it out of there and sped walked 15 blocks to try to make it to St. Mary's church for 5pm mass. We didn't make it in time for mass, but we did have to hike up a good sized street hill and were rewarded with a great view of the city.

There are a ton of pictures of my Dad in Rome holding his arms out at his sides in front of small vehicles to show just how small the cars really are. This next picture is very dark, but it is of me holding my arms out at my sides to show you just how narrow Japanese two-way roads can be!

So there is part one! Part two of Yokohama will be up soon!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay, okay. I fell off the blogging bandwagon for awhile. I blame it on not remembering where I put the mouse to the laptop (editing pictures with only the mousepad takes forever!). I will now attempt to play catch up, and post a lot over the next week or two, to show everything Lou and I have been up to!

 This is a bookcase you see directly upon entering our house. I decorated it for Valentine's Day. This is how it turned out, home made garland and all!

I cut out each felt heart individually and sewed them together by hand. I know what your thinking, and the answer is yes, I do have a lot of free time on my hands. 

Here is a special surprise we received in the mail from my Mom and Dad! They are simply the best :) 

I don't think the chocolate lasted more than 5 days.

Here is what Louis wrote on the envelope containing my Valentine's Day card from him:

Really? My first AND last name? Okay? At least none of the other Caroline's living in our house mistook it for their own and opened it by mistake..... The best part is, he didn't even notice what he had written until I pointed it out. 

Along with my formal card, he also baked some bread for me! (He is the bread master). It had chocolate chips and cherries in it. Here it is prior to baking:

And afterwards:

Yum. 

And because you can't have just bread for dessert, we also made root beer floats with vanilla ice cream and hot fudge. Double yum.