I had been looking forward to Valentine’s Day for a long time…not because of the actual holiday, but because I had a day off on 2/11. I think it’s Japan’s birthday or something. I asked all my students why it was a public holiday, and only one of them could answer. It’s possible that it was a language thing because they didn’t know how to say “foundation,” but I don’t think so.
Anyway, because I had a day off, I took the opportunity to go to a new cafe…twice!
This place just opened in December, and you can have a latte while looking at one of Takaoka’s biggest attractions – the giant Buddha statue. He is known as maybe the third largest buddha statue in Japan (the ones in Nara and Kamakura are well-established as the top 2, but there’s some discrepancy after that) and certainly the most handsome (or so I’ve heard…take a look at his face and ‘stache and make your own judgment).
The first time, I went with my coworker Austin and my friend Brandon. The second time, with both of my coworkers (Austin and Yui) and our friend Sora. The second time was yesterday, and we were allowed special access to the VIP room on the 2nd floor to thank us for being repeat customers. (Sometimes it helps to be a foreigner in Japan…memorable faces.)
The first picture is actually Italian Tomato Cafe, where I had a slice of chocolate banana pie for lunch on Thursday. Ignore that, and let’s get back to Amida.
You can see the adorable face of Buddha in the milk foam of my latte. I also had a little white chocolate pudding cake inspired by the shape of Buddha’s head and halo. It was really delicious, and you can see the raspberry filling in a later picture. It was so rich that I almost couldn’t finish it…but we sat chatting for over two hours, so I made it happen.
The bottom left picture is the view from the second floor of the cafe, and the remaining pictures are me and my coworkers killing time while we waited for Sora (she wasn’t late; we were just early).
Other than that, I spent some time at a few local restaurants, including an izakaya where I had the chef’s choice assortment of sashimi and a yakitori place where I had a bunch of grilled chicken and veggies on sticks. I sang karaoke for 2 hours yesterday and then came home and wrote 3 more letters.
Today, I’ll be playing Paper Mario all day and then cooking spaghetti and eating a bunch of chocolate at night.
Life’s pretty good!
Alisa & a Visa 