How is bagel formed?

We were in Tokyo for 3 hot'n'muggy days before coming to Kanazawa, and in that time I've basically come to understand what it's like to be a glazed ham in an oven. This is my roundabout way of explaining why I haven't been posting, which has about 75% to do with constantly feeling like I'd been in a sauna for 3 weeks straight.

Anyway, when I was hanging around Tokyo, the OH WOW HOLY SHIT NEW AND EXCITING food was apparently thus:



Like most Japanese bread products, "BAGEL" is overpriced, poofy, greasy, and distinctly unsatisfying on multiple levels. Oh well. At least they have baguettes that are decent here! Not to mention my new favorite "can't believe it's vegan" item, which is a green tea-based bread roll with sweet red beans (aka azuki, Hokkaido's own highly addictive cash crop).

Oh, and to follow up on Andrea's last post, I thought I should give mention to something we found adjacent to the train station in Hakusan, which we dubbed the best/worst playground of all time:

When you're done watching the trains go by while sitting on a bell pepper (or, if you really want to go crazy, a lemon!) then you can drink out of the semi-decapitated penguin's skull. Then go ride a panda like a horse!

Japan has this weird dual thing going on when it comes to children's play structures. Either they're crazy-technically-advanced and elaborate and make me jealous of kids who grew up here, or they're these depressing, rusted, low-rent playgrounds that look like they came out of some demented Soviet politburo trying to crush children's will before they grow up to be counter-revolutionaries. Lesson learned: if you're going to be a hyperactive, hard-to-please Japanese child who's easily entranced by flashing lights, best to stick to a major city.

Haku-san adventures

On Sunday we attempted to play tourist with mixed results. First, we had lunch at Noppokun, a vegan cafe in the southern section of Kanazawa. They have a fun system where they have sample dishes next to little knitted balls. You fill your rice bowl with the knitted balls of the dishes you want. I had a salad that was quite good, tempura that was super good, and curry that was nice but Greg has made equally tasty Japanese style curry at home for cheaper. After eating we went to the organic grocery they have on the first floor and found VEGAN DOUGHNUTS. If there's one thing Greg never expected to find in Japan, it has to be vegan doughnuts. Surprisingly, they also had a few frozen veggie meat substitutes.

Our next stop was supposed to be Tedori Gorge. It looks very pretty, but it is hard to find precise instructions about how to get there. I thought I had read it was near Tsurugi station so we got out there and walked along the river for a while.

By the time we had reached the final station on the train line we could tell the gorge was a lot further than anticipated. We switched plans and visited Shirayama-hime shrine. Then we took a gondola up to Shishiku, a peak that has skiing in winter, but mostly acts as a launch point for paragliders during the summer. Even though they were inexplicably shaped like tater tots, Greg enjoyed his vegan doughnuts.

The top of Shishiku has many depressing activities for children. For example, they have depressing polar bear playgrounds.

They also have depressing astro turf sledding.