Gyoza Town

Hayabusa

We had a quieter day today.  (About time!).  We had seen a programme devoted to Utsunomiya a city North of Tokyo which is famed for its gyoza (Chinese dumplings).  We all love gyoza so thought it a good idea to investigate and a good first trip out on the shinkansen - especially with it being a weekend as we aren't wanting to go to tourist destinations at the weekend.

Gyoza

Happily the shinkansen that takes us to Utsunomiya is the Hayabusa - the green one with the long nose.  We got ourselves to Tokyo station, did some train spotting and then hopped on.  It was an hour's trip (most of that quite slow getting past the drab and never-ending suburbs of Tokyo).

It was roasting hot again today - maybe a little hotter than yesterday making it hard work to do too much.  However, Matt had done some homework and found that there was a good gyoza shop just opposite the shinkansen station that does a selection plate.

We found it without too much trouble and ordered ourselves 2 x plates of 12 mixed gyoza.  From memory the flavours were:

+ Shi-take mushroom
+ Mai-take mushroom
+ Pork
+ Shiso
+ Kimchi
+ Garlic
+ Cheese
+ Ebi
+ Kenta (not sure what this is)
+ and 3 others - sorry memory not working well.

Colourful building

We had to open them all up to find the mushroom ones which Tom and I shared, and the spicy ones which Matt and I shared and then we just dug in.  Last time we came to Japan Tom didn't really go for gyoza.  This time he did.  So much so that we ended up getting another plate of just ebi ones as he was still hungry once we had finished and we felt hard done by the number of gyoza he inhaled!

We then went for a wander around the streets, but didn't find anything very interesting.  We were here just for the gyoza and hadn't looked up what else to do.  However, there was a big shopping centre opposite the station and as it was so hot outside we decided to head for it and its air conditioning.  There just happened to be a big Yodobashi Camera - so once again we found ourselves in the camera section with Matt trying on various camera bags.  This time he bought one - the first one we had found earlier in the week but at a cheaper price than in Tokyo - so happy smiles all round.

Sat on the shinkansen home

We then just happened to find ourselves in a large Daiso.  We actually lost Tom in the shop.  He was carrying the basket and sharing his time between me and Matt.  However, there came a time when he couldn't find us and we couldn't find him.  A strategic sweep of the shop found him.  Was he bothered?  No of course not.  In fact Tom is at his most relaxed here.  Nothing and I mean NOTHING has fazed him since we got here.  He has taken it all in his stride, no-one would have a clue he was from a tiny village in the UK.  It is almost as if he's been here all his life: he positively dances around on the streets, doesn't seem to mind the heat, doesn't mind the language difference, the difference in people (looks and sheer quantity of them), the difference in buildings, the difference in food etc etc.  Culture shock is an alien concept to him - we are really proud of him for it.

Anyway, we were getting tired, so found ourselves a cafe to sit down in for tea and a bun, then we searched out a supermarket to get some food in before getting the shinkansen home.  Then back to the apartment in daylight (for the first time since we got here), home cooked food: Hayashi rice, shower, bath and bed.