Out To Nemuro, and Oh Yeah, It's The Fourth Of July! (Part 1)

On The Road Again...

I woke up feeling fine. Eisaku? Not so well. But we headed out anyway, ready to face the day.

First stop: Rokkatei, a nationally famous candy shop based out of Obihiro. There"s free coffee, and they sell a "crispy pie" there that you can't get anywhere else. So, for a quick breakfast snack for me and a hangover-beater for Eisaku, we made a stop.

Mmmm, crispy pie....(drools)

Then we called out to Marumatsu Shokudo to see what time they opened. The lady that runs the place said we could come a little early, so after killing some time in the shopping arcade, we hit the road and made our way over there.

Eisaku is the one who told me about Obihiro's famous butadon. He's also the one who told me that they're expensive and not really all that much to write home about. So when I came back from my first trip to Obihiro raving about the butadon mastery that is Marumatsu Shokudo, he was skeptical. Today I planned to prove him wrong.

In front of Marumatsu Shokudo.

The lady who runs the place, cooking up a couple fine butadon.

Eisaku, looking skeptical.

Then he took a bite. He chewed. He smiled. He looked over at me and said, "I was wrong. This. Is a damn fine butadon."

Celebrating my victory.

As always, the lady that runs the place was great. She hooked us up with miso soup and some vegetables for free. She is so cool.

And after thanking her, we hit the road, heading east toward Kushiro and Nemuro.

It was pretty much nonstop through Kushiro, a fairly big city that seems really poorly planned out. Example: an elementary school right ext to a pulp mill.

We cleared Kushiro with little incident and were on our way out to Nemuro when Eisaku asked me to turn the car around and pull into a rest area we had just passed. He had noticed a sign advertising oysters, and since he's been on an oyster kick since late last year, he wanted to go. Cool with me. So I turned around, headed back, went into the shop, and...

...watched the man eat his oysters.

I'm not a big fan myself.

The drive from Kushiro to Nemuro was fairly uneventful as well, although the lay of the land was eerily similar to back home in the states.

Rolling hills, straight roads, no cars around...

...hay bales...



We made a stop at the Nemuro border to get a shot in front of the "Welcome To Nemuro...Now Give Us Back Our Islands!" sign (it's not in the pic up top, but it was in that area), and then continued on.

We also stopped in a place called "Onnetto" to get a picture of the landscape, which, while cloudy, was still pretty impressive.

Then it was back on the road toward central Nemuro and parts beyond...

...To Be Continued...