4-1-09 First Day; Downtown Narita and Narita Shrine

In the morning, at the hotel, I met up with two other people from my group. We had 5 or 6 hours to kill, so we decided to head into Downtown Narita because, supposedly, there is an impressive Shinto (a Japanese religion) shrine to see.

After wandering around for an hour, we found the shrine, and it was beautiful. Here are some pictures from it:









As you can see, the Shrine and the surrounding park were gorgeous. The coy pond looked like it came straight from a postcard!

On the way back, we were hungry and thirsty. However, there were many authentic looking Japanese restaurants and we didn't know which to choose. So, we did what any traveler would do; we found the busiest restaurant and ate there. The restaurant we chose had a chef in the front with a fish tank to his right and a cutting board in front of him. In the fish tank were live eels. I watched him reach into the tank, take out a live eel, put it on the cutting board, then slice off its head, and then its tail. The chef proceeded to slice the fish down the center, opening it up like a hot-dog bun. He then quickly barbecued it over a coal stove. Talk about fresh!

The restaurant was so authentic that it did not even have chairs. We sat on the cushions on the floor (shoes off of course) and ate at a low table. I'm a little bigger than most Japanese men, and wearing tight jeans, I had a tough time sitting down into the small area. I knocked a few things over and banged into the shoji wall behind me. The entire restaurant (all Japanese locals) were staring at the three white people causing a commotion. I ordered Biiru (beer), mizu (water), and a plate of unagi (eel). For an "appetizer," the waitress brought out a small pitri dish-sized plate with tiny fried fish. I don't know what the fish were called, but its the kind of fish that you would see in a small creek. Not very tasty. The Unagi was out of this world! It literally melted in your mouth. The eel was hands-down better than any eel I have tasted in a sushi restaurant.

Three young Japanese men were sitting at the table next to us. I look at their "appetizer" and it looked like tiny, flattened french fries with little pokers coming off of it. In broken Japanese, I ask them what it is, and before one of them tells me, they offers me one. I eat it without a second thought. It actually tasted pretty good but it was very crispy and poked the inside of my cheeks. He then tells me that it is hardened Shrimp spine. Mmmm Yummy!

After lunch we left Narita and met our group at the Yokohama Station. There are 7 guys (3 white), and 15 girls (equally diverse). I will explain about my dorm in the next post.