We went to Toyama to see family friends and with that came lots of changes in plans. They lived in Portland when we were younger and we would often visit with our mother. She was friends with the parents, Dr and Mrs. Kawasaki. There were three kids and two of them are the same age as my sister and me. We thought we’d stay for three days and see the city (we usually end up at the home of Dr & Mrs Kawasaki and chatting) but what happened was we stayed the first night, went to an Onsen with the “kids”, and then went to dinner at Dr & Mrs. Kawasaki’s.

Anyway, here’s a view from the hotel room. It was nice, not rainy!

That mosaic building towards the right had an interesting coffee shop with breakfast options. My sister had the Japanese option.

I knew we’d have plenty of Japanese food at the Onsen so I opted for the western version.

We made a stop at Dr. and Mrs. Kawasaki’s for lunch and we decided to go on an adventure to the local Costco instead of cooking. I’ve mentioned Japanese Costco’s before and how they’re almost like US Costco’s but even more ridiculous at times. They have most of the things from the US but the pies are 11” (my sister says standard pies are 9”)!

I forgot to measure these pizzas but I don’t know anyone other than a restaurant that has an oven that can fit these (they’d barely fit in my oven back in Oregon.)

Would you like a little sushi?

We got sandwiches, a different (smaller) pack of sushi, and more croissants than anyone needs.

After lunch it was off to the Onsen, Hotel Ogawa. Here are the pictures from dinner (I missed one course).

The appetizer.

A mochi covered in something.

Pork and tofu cooking.

Salted grilled trout full of eggs.

Tempura.

And finally the rice and soup.

No picture of the dessert either. I remember it being good.

I guess I made no mention of the onsen. There was the main bath with a big bath and a wooden bath outside. There’s also another smaller bath down a long hallway that is also outside and closer to the rapids with no amenities (only four baskets to put your clothes in, no lock boxes, no place to wash yourself) so you need to wash yourself at the main bath first. There’s also other outdoor baths down a trail and I was told it was far and the water wasn’t too warm so I guess I’m happy I skipped that.