2015-08-11/12, Samegai in Maibara

Continuing to have fun during my summer vacation I had a relaxing day with Cindy on Tuesday.  First we went to find some room darkening curtains for my apt.  After that we had lunch at a 'family restaurant' near her house.  Yummy.  I had shrimp doria.  I had never heard of doria before I came to Japan - it's not Japanese but I think it's a Japanese adaptation of something.  It's sort of like gratin but with rice instead of potatoes.  Rice, cream sauce, sometimes tomato sauce or shrimp or something and a little cheese on top.

After that we got on the train for a short ride north to a very  small town called Samegai where I had read about some special flowers that grow in the little river/stream.  It was a nice little town with the houses lined up along the river which for some reason was ice cold even though it was very small and shallow.

The old post office.

An old mailbox, they're square metal things now.

We came across a soy sauce shop.  They made the soy sauce upstairs - Yamaki brand.  I bought some to try (of course).

Some people had set up small snack shops in front of their houses.  This one sold drinks, watermelon that was kept cold in the river, tomatoes and cucumbers in cold water and warabi mochi 'pops' also in cold water.

Tomatoes which don't really look appetizing, cucumbers on a stick which are probably
quite refreshing, and warabi mochi on a stick.

My warabi mochi 'pop'.  Warabi mochi is sort of like jello cubes but is made
from something else.  Real warabi is a fern and very expensive, most warabi these
days is made from kudzu or something.  It's yummy.

Someone must have ordered watermelon.

I loved this sign:
Sweet?  Delicious?  Try it and see.

This was an unusual roof in an old building.

They're looking for coins.

It was too hot to go up...