Nagashi Somen!

 We went for some Nagashi Somen about a week ago and I forgot my camera—it's kind of creepy that most of the times I go out with Sato Mieko-san I forget my camera; and it really is on accident!

Nagashi Somen is something Sato-san translated as "Japanese floating noodles." Somen are thin, white noodles, and on this case they come out of a pipe floating on a stream of water. You then catch them with your chopsticks, dip them in soy sauce and eat them! It is really, really fun.

I was lucky to get these awesome pictures from her:

This is the Nagashi Somen place. It was really, really nice to have an open-air restaurant. And, this might sound stupid but, the waterfall in the background made it feel like the noodles were coming from the waterfall xD

Right out of that pipe is where the flowing Somen came out of

Accompanying the dish was a roasted, salted fish, some tempura herbs, and the soy sauce.

The fish was especially strange for me since I had never eaten the whole fish like that. It was genius, though

After the Nagashi Somen we went to Azuma Sports Park, where we walked around and saw some traditional Japanese houses in exhibition

Abura zemi (Japanese cicada)

Traditional mochi (rice cake) maker

It was super strange, but we found some crayfish on our excursion. Sato-san explained that crayfish are not really eaten in Japan. 

At the end of the day, Nagashi Somen was one of the most awesome eating experiences I've had in Japan!

A Day With Shimada-san—Anime Convention

Shimada-san is one of the chefs at Iyashi Cafe, my host's Korean restaurant. Since the day I arrived she showed me how to work everything around the house where I was staying—though my host made me move out of that house after Miska arrived. 

I now live in my host's incredibly dirty house alone with her—haha, and I do mean the "alone with her" part because she's never actually around; but sorry, my host is a whole different story.

Dango shop

Kurimu (cream) rice flour snack

This is the Converntion Center before it opened; we got there early because Shimada-san was in charge of the food stand and we had to set it up. 

The food stand—at first I saw how much food we were going to be selling and thought it was too much, but in the end we sold out of everything. The woman with the blue glove, that's Shimada-san!

The food stand sold rice with vegetables, fried chicken, hot dogs, uron cha (oolong tea), orange juice, and pastries... this is what the hot dogs looked like.

At about 11 am, a huge crowd of girls with suitcases entered the center and formed a line to enter a dressing-room area where they put on their cosplays. Before leaving, they all went back into the dressing rooms and took off their costumes; this is so they don't cause public commotion outside of the convention area. 

I found this odd, since we usually parade in costumes all day after an anime convention back at home; in fact we arrive to the convention center already dressed. 

You see that unhappy guy sitting down? Well,

after only three pictures, I was stopped short from taking any more photographs by a security guard, apparently it wasn't allowed xD

There was a specific area for photographing cosplayers, but I wasn't allowed to take pictures because I was part of the food stand. Something that I found out after taking this photograph:

Haha, I was yet again stopped by a security guard

I was finally allowed to take pictures outside, and the cosplays were great!

One of my personal favorites!

Ryotaro Okiayu was the guest speaker at this convention, which was AWESOME!! Unfortunately, I could not take pictures of him, either /:

Overall my day at the convention was amazing, I really enjoyed helping out at the food stand and being able to see authentic Japanese cosplayers ^_^