Chopsticks

Yoko, Jennie and I went on an adventure sometime long ago (early May?) and it was a great day! First we went to see the famous 5-story pagoda in Yamaguchi City...because I'd never seen it before. We were killing time until our appointment with some chopsticks. :) My awesome supervisor, that I have mentioned before (O-sensei), told me about how I could make chopsticks, since I'm always looking for new stuff to do.

We just happened to run into a couple of other friends when we were at the Pagoda, and invited them along. It was all very serendipitous.

It was relaxing and fun. Mostly. One of the lacquers that we had to use can be poisonous. A couple of us got some one our skin, and the instructor started freaking out. Still not sure if one of us is infected, and spreading the chopstick paint disease all over Yamaguchi...

My set is for my mom. I sent them off to her a few days ago, hopefully they don't snap in the mail!

Afterwards, we went to this famous restaurant. We got there 20 minutes before it opened, and the parking lot was full...with waiters going from car window to car window to basically give them a number. Our number only had us waiting for about an hour and a half...

Its all you can eat...meat. And veggies. Anything that could be deep fried, is brought to us raw on skewers. We dip it in the batter, and then in the tempura powder stuff, then plop it into that deep frier that you can see there, right in the middle of the table.

Everyone leaves smelling of oil and feeling sick. :) But I'm glad I got to experience it.