Home with Chef, Nara, Japan- II

Day 3. Breakfast at the hotel. It's like being a kindergardener all over again. Plastic trays!

Waiting for chef to pick us up.

Onwards to the Shrine of the White Snake Goddess. At the base of the shrine, we found a hand-made somen shop that has a beautiful garden, and pots of lovely flowers.

Second breakfast, warm somen and roast sweet potato.

みわさん　え　行きます！

Why are there red maple leaves in the middle of Spring, I wonder?? Perhaps it's the power of miwa san...

Walking up to the shrine, where I got my fortune told. 吉 A good sign. =)

We visited ami-chan's aunt, a very giving and generous lady who spoke not a word of English but we understood her anyway. I found out that some gestures are international.

Persimmon leaf-wrapped zushi!! I'd wanted to try this a long time ago.. finally! yumm yumm, I like the smell of the persimmon leaf. うれしい！

Ishi buta, our next sight-seeing venue, is ermm... a pile of rocks manually hauled and put together by ancient Japanese.

Rocks are alright, but the flowers are truly a sight to behold.

Teatime! A wagyu speciality shop.

The average price of wagyu, 300g plus, (nicely marbled) is about 500yen, which translates to about S$8. Am I right to say that the extra $50 we usually see on menus comes from freight? What a joke...

We bought wagyu croquette and katsu to eat. They actually fry their wagyu... and man, it is delicious.

Dinner at chef's home. Sukiyaki!! Chef's mother, sister and wife prepared dinner for us. ごちそうさまでした！

End.