First Snow ♥

We had first snow today!!!  :)

I was inside a building until 2PM, and when I went outside it was snowing.

I haven’t seen snow for 1.5 years.  I’m excited!!!

The snow stopped after awhile, and the sun was out.  The air was chilly, but I didn’t think it’d snow again, so I went out to a store nearby.  After shopping at the store, the sky looked like this ↑  The sky was dark, and it was very windy.  I got home straight away.

At 6Pm, my dad asked me to drive him to Nagahama train station which is about 15 minutes by car from my house.  He was having bounen-kai (end of the year drinking party) at a restaurant near the train station.  We left home, then it started to snow again…. pretty hard!

You can’t really see it, but some cars were carrying thick snow on their roofs.

Ummmmm  I couldn’t take nice snow photos.  It looks like raining, but it was snowing.  I hadn’t driven in snow for 8 years, and it was very scary :p

This snow isn’t gonna stack up.  Fine powder snow will, but the snow today was big, fluffy one.  It will be next year to see white world, probably.

Rengei-Ji

A temple near my house.  We go walking around the house often, and this is one of the places we’ve been.

A donguri nut on the ground.  Autumn….

It’s just a small temple, but we could walk inside.  There was a big bell which a monk will hit at 00:00 AM on the New Year’s day (Joya-No-Kane).

Hmmmm… beautiful!!

Lunch at Katsukura

D, Hiro and I went to Katsukura in Kusatsu city, Shiga to have lunch with my friend.  I haven’t seen her for a long time… probably around 5 years.  We used to go to same collage in Osaka, then flew to Perth to study English at same TAFE campus.  After that she went back to Japan, then came back to Australia to travel around, then went back to Japan again, flew to Europe to travel around, and now working in Japan  She brought her boy friend to lunch

I chose Katsukura because I had craving for katsu when she asked me what I wanted to eat.  Katsukura is in Kintetsu building which connects to Kusatsu train station, so easy access was another reason I chose this place (as we both traveled by train).

Inside was bit stuffy and narrow, but maybe I felt so because I had Hiro.  He didn’t want to sit still.  I thought they might have zashiki (dining area on tatami) but they only had tables and chairs.

D ordered normal tonkatsu-zen (pork katsu set meal), and I ordered wakadori-zen (young chicken katsu set meal).

First, small bowls of sesame seeds were brought to the tabel.  We need to grind the sesame seeds at the table, and pour choice of katsu sauce into the bowl.  It’s going to be the dipping sauce for katsu.  Freshly ground sesame seeds are very aromatic.

Tonkatsu-zen.

Wakadori-zen.

Rice was served in a big container, and we scoop into our rice bowls by ourselves.  So was pickles.  Bottles of Sauces and salad dressing were set at the table.  Rice, shredded cabbage, and miso soup are all unlimited.  Yes, you can order as many times as you want.

I could just eat rice with the katsu sauce.  Very nice.  The meat was juicy and soft too.

MisDo!

Hi there, happy Hiro from Mister Donut.  We’re having afternoon tea

Three donuts and OJ for ¥500.

At MisterDonut, they are selling these “Christmas donuts” right now for limited time only ↓↓↓

Snow-man-looking donuts (the face is coated with icing), and Christmas-wreath-looking churros (one is coated with icing, others are with chocolate).  The icing donut is sweet, but it’s kind of addictive!  I love the icing Christmas wreath churros.

I went back there in few days to eat another icing churros.

They’re collecting the orders for Mister Donut Christmas Set (¥1000), and I wanted to order one, but I couldn’t…..   They were all sold out by the time I went to submit the order sheet.

The donuts are yummy….  Unlimited drinks (cafe au lait etc) make afternoon tea perfect relaxing time of the day!

Big Boy

We had lunch at Big Boy the other day.

I remember staying here for hours with friends when I was a student, just by purchasing drink bar.  It’s sometimes ¥100, so it was the best place to kill time and have a chat with friends.

I ordered daily lunch menu (¥580).  It was a set of grilled chicken, prawn katsu, and stir-fried pork dish came with unlimited soup bar and a choice of rice or a bread roll.

D had big hamburg set (¥780)which came with a choice of sauce and a choice of rice or a bread roll.  The hot black stone on the right front is to sear the meat if you want to cook more.

I had ¥100 coupon for drink bar, so we ordered one.

A piece of paper was placed around the hamburg plate to avoid any oil spill.

It was pretty volumy…  I was full after having 3 cups of soup, meat plate, drinks, and bit of rice.

D was eating the hamburg as hamburger…   sandwiching slice of hamburg inside a bread roll.