I slept a little better but towards the end I felt like I was just lying there awake. I think I got up at 4:30AM? Then I spent wasted a bunch of time screwing around on my computer, which is also what I’m doing right now. I started out by paying bills which happens twice a month on paydays. And I made it down to breakfast when the restaurant opened, at 6:30am. Unlike the restaurant in Tokyo, people were there early. I’m guessing it’s partially a country thing, and its partially because there were older people (older than me!), and mostly because there were lots of people on business trips.

Like dinner, they sprayed my hands with alcohol when I went in and they gave me some clown gloves as an added measure that my filthy, filthy hands didn’t touch the food.

I grabbed just about one of everything from the buffet and I ate it all. I am not losing any weight not this trip. In my defense, it was all very good. As I expected, the natto was much better since it wasn’t frozen for a long time like the stuff we get in the US, but everything else was good as well.

I looked up the train schedule and I had several local trains to catch for a two hour trip to Utsunomiya but it didn’t leave until 10am. That meant more time to waste in my room.

And then I was off. Utsunomiya is a lot bigger than I expected and it looked like there was a lot going on in the train station. Several of the shops were ones I’ve seen in Tokyo and that left an interesting first impression. I took my bags to the hotel, which was several blocks from the station, and had the tourist information person confirm that I should go see the mines that initially made Utsunomiya so famous (or so says one of the travel pages). She told me the bus stop was behind and to go to stop #6. Well, turns out there are TWO stop #6 and she meant behind ME and not behind HER. I was on the wrong side of the station and missed the bus. Fortunately there was one a half-hour later, so I shoved a Lotteria shrimp burger set in my pie hole. It was the most popular burger according to the woman behind the counter and I have to admit it was pretty tasty.

Then it was a nervous trip out into the countryside where I could barely read the signs and the directions were given to me in Japanese, of course. I should’ve gotten out at the same stop that everyone else did but my instructions seemed to indicate that I needed to go one stop further. One stop further was the middle of nowhere, but it also wasn’t too far from the previous one. This was because several of the tourist attractions were close together and so were the stops.

I made my way to the quarry and a guy asked me if I was cold wearing just my t-shirt. Actually it felt pretty good coming from Oregon. I like it on the cooler side but it’s still warmer here than back home. I had to put on my jacket for the quarry though. I took a bunch of pictures but I’ll just post a couple. Keep in mind these aren’t natural formations, but quarries on the surface.

And down into one of the cave-like quarries which is the “museum”.

It was quite a way down and not only were the caverns huge but they went on and on.

I guess there are hundreds of sites in the area and some are still being used as natural refrigerators. I think this one is used for movies and art installations and they were setting something up. During WWII they used some of the caves to manufacture airplane parts.

The next attraction was a temple with a goddess carved into the mountain. It’s inside of the temple and you’re not supposed to take photographs. In the past the carving was covered with clay and gold but that all wore off.

Next to the temple were ancient relics and pottery shards and explanations all in difficult scholarly Japanese so I didn’t read those. And next to the display of treasures were something like a garden. I’m not quite sure, but it was peaceful and pretty.

Just outside of the temple and around the corner was a giant stone goddess of mercy.

If you look carefully you can see stairs that go up behind her and I did go up those stairs. I didn’t see all that much from up there but it was a nice view.

That’s about it for the afternoon. I headed to the bus stop and finally realized I hadn’t had nearly enough coffee the day before, so I stopped in the Rock Island Roastery. I was afraid I’d miss the bus because they were so careful in preparing my drink.

It was also quite good. I met a couple of Israelis at the bus stop and found out that Utsunomiya is only about 2 hours from Tokyo on the “regular” express train that currently costs less than $15. They were headed back right after their visit to the quarry.

On the other hand, I was staying overnight and I needed to get some dinner. I checked into the hotel (same chain as last night) and it’s a newer, nicer, and not-as-quiet hotel (the doors sound very thin). Utsunomiya is known for gyoza and the front desk just suggested I go to the new dining area of the building almost next door. I looked there and I looked in the station and the places I looked at the gyoza just looked like gyoza. So I got out the coin flipping app and decided to go to the fancier place. Turns out it’s a tapas bar so that ended up costing me a bit of money. I also got a “local” craft beer.

Don’t let the shape of the glass fool you: that’s maybe a 12oz bottle (maybe 10oz?) and that glass is just bigger than a juice glass.

The started boded well for the rest.

The crostini were tiny but excellent.

The bbq skewers were small and sold one at a time but good as well.

I was still hungry so I also ordered a guacamole burger (I think it said wacamole on the menu). They gave me cream cheese for the fries.

I also had a very small shot of Yamazaki whiskey for the road.

And then I knew I needed to stop at 7Eleven for some reason but I forgot what that reason was and only got some pumpkin pudding to take back to the hotel for dessert.

And that’s about it. It’s now 10pm and I’m not falling asleep at my computer. Hooray for the right amount of coffee!