Day 19

Day 19 was another fun day filled with more walking than expected!  We had a few important stops to make today so we got up early and set off.  We had already gone and seen Himeji Castle, but still wanted to see Nijo Castle.  Nijo Castle is famous for its Nightingale floors, floors that sound like birds when you step on them.  This was a way to protect the Shogun from harm by preventing would-be assassins from sneaking in.  There were no pictures allowed inside, but the outside was very picturesque!  We walked along the two moats and the gardens inside, and met a couple of guys from California on the way, haha.

Trudging home from Nijo-jo we tried to get curry, but it was sadly all meat :(  Disappointed, we went to a Familymart and bought ramen instead.  "Fox ramen" was delicious nonetheless, with abura age pieces in it~

Our convenience store lunch was not a problem though, since we knew a delicious dinner was coming up!  Tonight was the night of our first Nagomi Visit dinner.  Nagomi Visit is a service that lets visitors meet up with Japanese families and have dinner with them!  We met up with our host a little early and went to see the Lake Biwa museum.  Lake Biwa is a huge freshwater lake that has been around since prehistoric times.  The museum was fascinating, and we learned about old methods of transporting goods across the lake and the fact that there were giant elephants back in prehistoric times.

With our exploration finished, we went back to our host's house and started dinner.  And oh boy did we have dinner!  It was a huge spread of homemade food, from a professional chef and Sommelier.  Here are just a selection of the delicious things and drinks we had!

Sake cocktail with fruit!

Ingredients to make Temaki (hand made) sushi

Fresh sushi, yum!

Ridiculously spicy fresh Mapo Tofu!  

Sweet Dango to finish it all off

Our awesome hosts and their cute dog~