Aso...

Yesterday one my friends came to pick me up for some plans that I had completely forgotten, which threw me off a little because I hadn't gone to the bank and I had only $40 on me. Well, I found out after leaving the house that we were taking a 2 hour drive down south to a city that's famous four it's volcano...dormant of course. Lucky me, my friends treated...perhaps it had something to do with the gifts I brought them back from home. It was four of us in the car so the folks in the front were having their conversation and we were in the back having a separate conversation for most of the ride. She asked me all kinds of question about my family and the things my parents told me as a child.

"You'll be an adult for much longer than you'll be a child, so have fun. You don't need to work."

In Aso, the restaurant we ate lunch at was an old house that was transplanted from another city. It's over 200 years old. The style of cooking is called Dengaku. There are coal pits in the floor and you cook your food in front of you on spits and a rack. We had fish, chicken, beef, vegetables, an tofu. The food was really good and sooooo fresh, as most food here is. After lunch we had coffee at the restaurant's coffee shop. Then we headed a little further down the mountain to the Shirokawa (White River) fountainhead. It was so beautiful! That had to be the clearest water I have ever seen! You could see it bubbling out of the ground. So I bought a bottle so that I could take some home. Let me tell you, bottled spring water from the store has nothing on this water. This is the first time that I've had water that had no taste. No taste at all! After bottling our liquid goodness, we went to a little shop and had tofu and dango...yum!

When we got back to town, all went to my Japanese mom's house for tea, dinner, dessert, coffee, and a Nora Jones DVD. For dinner we ate Oyakodon...named that because Oya means parents and Ko means child and you use chicken and egg in the dish. It was really good. I think she puts it best when she said we speak different languages but we understand each other's hearts (with the help of pictionary, gestures, and an electronic dictionary...hehehe). And despite the fact that I didn't spend a dime the whole day, she still was sure to give me a gift. Yay for gift-giving societies!!!