a fishy morning indeed it was...

This morning we had dried tai himono, dried sea bream fish for breakfast. The picture is a bit graphic for you vegetarian friends of mine...my deepest apologies. ^_^ Notice how beautifully spliced this sucker is - they've got fish surgery down to a pat. If I'm ever short a surgeon, I'll know where to go if I'm really in a bind!

Apart from the fact that there were billions of bones, it was quite delicious. Himono, a.k.a. salted and sun-dried fish, is not uncommon for breakfast in Japan. I've become quite fond of aji himono, salted and sun-dried horse mackerel. The good thing about aji is that it doesn't have nearly as many bones as the tai himono.

We got sea bream at the fish market. Monday was a holiday so the O'Hara family, Hiro and I went to Hitachinaka, a sea port in northern Ibaraki prefecture. One fisherman said, "waaa eigo ga jouzu desune!" It means, "your English is quite good!" We all laughed and told him that in fact I am not Japanese. He was blown away and said things like, "but but...you look so Japanese...but you are so small and cute." Ha ha ha. I love being the foreigner incognito here, you never know who you'll surprise next. Breaking stereotypes is extremely fun.

The O'hara girls, little Shiori and Naruho made the car trip one to remember! They sang karaoke songs while staring at the navigation/TV screen. Then they punched each other, slapped each other as girls often do...and then cried a bit here and there. Ha ha. I was given a new hairdo by the two hairstylists though I am afraid I won't adopt it as my future look. @:P