Monbetsu is the Japanese home for Yasuko and Randy. The plan is to stay at their house for 4 nights, meet the family and see some of the sights of the area.
We went from the airport directly to Randy's favorite restaurant for lunch. where we were met by Ryuichi's daughter, Eriko. I'm sure there must be a selection but it didn't matter because Randy said we HAD to have the tempura soba. This is a bowl of homemade soba noodles, in a homemade broth with a tempura shrimp in it. It WAS delicious. I can see why he insisted that we try it.
Our 11/2 hour flight was uneventful and we were met at the airport by Yasuko's brother, Ryuichi. It was COLD, damp and snowing! Not quite what was expected for the end of April.
The owner of the restaurant, a delightful young lady of about 86, brought us a plate of very lightly tempuraed small whole fish. I'm not sure what they were but they were very good.
<- l. to r. Granny, Ryuichi, Yasuko,
Eriko, Randy.
Granny and the restaurant owner ->
Then it was on to the house and get ourselves settled. Once again, we were in for a bit of a surprise. Our bedroom is typical Japanese style accomodations. We will be sleeping on some pads that are placed on the tatami mats. Here it is in use!
In the afternoon, we went to a local museum to see the tea ceremony store. They prepared some tea and Granny took her turn at stirring the tea. We had only a short time back at the house before it was time for dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant across the street and one block away. We were NOT prepared for what was coming. We were shown to a private room which had been setup for a banquet.
Upper left is the banquet as it was when we arrived. That would have been plenty of food but it turned out there was much more to come. The picture above right shows the table FULL of food. There was no way we were going to finish all this. The picture on the right shows Eriko packing up all the leftovers. I think there was enough food for a week!
The center picture above shows how the meat and vegetables are prepared at the table in a "hot" pot. Traditionally each person spoons some of the meat and veggies into a small bowl in which a raw egg has been beaten. The picture on the left shows the plate of sushi that was part of the banquet and was barely touched.
