Japan Road Trips: Fast Food Stops

I had no idea what to call this post because it's sort of a hodge-podge of random photos across the several days it took us to head back to Tokyo and drop off our van. We did eat fast food in that time - yes our traditional Japanese eating ways, crumbled beneath us but it did give me something to work with for the title :p. I also took some cute photos along the way, which seem to fit nowhere else but this post - enjoy the random!

A cute little underpass with mosaic animals advertising a nearby zoo.

My new obsession - cloud trees!

Mt fuji on the left perhaps?

At Maccas they had the cutest happy meal - Doraemon! I had to take a lot of photos of course :) :)

Ben ordered a bacon and egg mcmuffin but the muffin was a pancake!!

Whilst I got one of their limited edition sakura drinks - so good by the way :) On a side note, this photo makes me miss my bright pink hair! I was a little worried Japanese people may have frowned upon that colour choice but I got such nice compliments from strangers!

Random blue lake, why not?

One night, after a seriously amazing onsen that had a cinnamon tub, a cold bath with oranges in it (actual oranges) and so many different baths inside and out, we ended up at a plaza.

Last time in Japan, Ben and I went skill tester crazy but this time we weren't feeling it as much - too many of those super weak claws you see above!

Pet store kitty - sad eyes - Awww!!

On another sad note, my depressing vegan pizza.  The guy serving us had to pull out the special menu (from under the counter) which had one vegetarian option on it. I asked for no cheese and because it must have been an extra special order it came to around $35 bucks - I could of cried - it was pretty small (see Ben's pizza below!)

Ben on the other hand got a whole combo for under $15. Definitely could of cried.

The following morning, after staying at one of my favourite Michi no ekis (they left water and food out for street cats in the ladies toilet!!) we embarked on a super fun adventure

I'm a bit sad we missed the opening of the info center(??) but we needed to get on with our day and onward with the adventure!

Japan Observations

         Heated toilet seats (so good for early winter starts)

         Everyone speeds 10-20kms over (the slow speed limits!!)

         Peeps put their hazards lights on to say thank you (wish we did that in Australia!)

         If traffic lights flash red you can go through them (well I hope you can)

        

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Japan Road Trip : Okayama

After our flat battery dramas in Osaka, the following days made up mega paranoid about our car battery. I think our van always started rough, due to the cold but it wasn't until we focused on the issue that we started to worry about it - life wisdom right there! So this morning, we decided to take care of two issues, dirty clothes and car starting issues! We found a laundry mat - tick! And then we found a yellow hat to buy some jumper cables - tick! We figured if we had jumper cables we could at least hail down someone and not feel so helpless!

Our day wasn't all boring though we checked out a turtle station, complete with real life turtles inside and a horseshoe crab Museum, complete with a dinosaur park outside! And at night, we hit up Takahashi and I diverted from my normal eating and had some eggs which was an actual delight but for the rest of the holiday I got back on track :)

Turtle stamps at Kamenoko station in Misaki + a handmade turtle keyring! I loved the smaller towns, we had such delightful interaction with staff and people who made us feel super special :)

The dinosaur park is free to roam around and then for a small fee you can go inside the horseshoe crab museum which I would totally recommend, it's rather odd, has random cabinets of vintage collectable and lots of curious things.  It only takes around an hour or less to explore and if you ask nicely they give you a sheet with stamps to collect as you walk around the museum (I have a feeling they hand these out to kids :p). The staff who run the Museum are so lovely though and even gifted us with origami at the end!!

dino and horeshoe crab!

This map outside was helpful in showing us some ideas for our next day :) Normally I go a bit overboard with planning but I kind of ran out of time this holiday, probably to the delight of Ben :p Our goal for the trip was it be super relaxed/go-with-the-flow and to be honest that philosophy probably helped it be one of our favourite holidays ever :)

That night we hang out in Takahashi, a city in Okayama and home to our Michi No Eki for the evening 

I'm holding the instructions sheet our waitress gave us :) "Okonomiyaki spatula lecture"

My Japan observations

- beautiful nature

- kawaii

- industrial

- run down

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