2011-11-14, It's definitely fall!

I thought I'd show you some local color.

This is the park that had the beautiful roses last spring.  There are still many roses blooming which seems a little strange with the colorful trees in the background. 

Sometimes I bring my lunch and sit on a bench for a while before work.

Cindy and I went out for yakiniku on Friday night.  It's become a monthly thing.  Yum yum.

You choose the meat and vegetables you want and then cook it yourself.  It's really fun, and delicious.

Friday was the last night of a 1/2 price special which made it even more fun and delicious.

On Saturday someone I met (Chizukosan) through my Japanese class met me at her local train station and together we did some sightseeing  (she drove).

We saw Eigenji in Higashiomi before it started to rain.

Chestnuts  they're everywhere during the fall.  I didn't like them when I was young and I still don't.
Although they do smell nice when they are roasting.

These are Matsutake mushrooms.  I've never had any.  They are VERY expensive but they are supposed to be very fragrant and delicious.  I suppose they're like truffles - although a very different (piney I think) fragrance and flavor.
3500 yen is equivalent to approximately $32.  That's for one package.

Cute!  He's wearing glasses.

Some of the rocks are made into sculptures, or some other rocks are sculpted and put on top of the rocks, not sure which, but in any case it reminded me of Mt. Rushmore.

Chizukosan

This is a storehouse - with really nice window frames.

You can sit on those benches and have a snack or noodles.

The pinkish paint on the trim (left) is unusual.

This is delicious udon with too much tempura style fried chicken.

Before we stopped for lunch it started to rain, so we had lunch, stopped at a great vegetable shop and headed back to the station.

I got soaked on the way home since I didn't realize how hard it was raining and decided not to put on my rain gear.  So I filled up the tub (even though it was only 4 or 5 o'clock), put some yuzu (citron) in it - uumm it smelled good - and warmed up.  It continued to rain hard as I spent the evening sipping hot chocolate and watching a Korean drama.