Jingas Kahn Lunch, a horse park, and a cave?! OH MY!! =D

Welcome to the latest installment of "What Sarah did!" In this episode, Sarah spends a fun-filled day with three of her favorite people and even makes a new friend! In the first picture is Noriko and Miharu! Noriko is on the left and used to be a GEOS student but I hadn't met her until this day! Miharu (right) also used to be a GEOS student but we've been friends for months! Both ladies are sooo much fun!! Hide (pronounced He-day) is taking the picture! He's a current student of mine, and we'll meet up with Asumi (another student) later on tonight for dinner! We had the most amazing day!! Gorgeous weather, unusual and exciting events, new friends and great ones!! It was lots of fun!!

This is the "gingas kahn lunch." A 30 minute drive North of Hamamatsu puts in the most picturesque mountains!! We all sat on cushions and tatami around a wooden table with a grill in the middle. But this grill was unique because the cooking surface was a big dome, like someone turned a metal collinder upside-down! The reason it's called Gingas Kahn Lunch is because it's supposed to look like Kahn's helmet upsode-down! Funny, huh?? The food was sooooo delicious and pretty healthy because the fats all get syphoned off at the bottom! We had meat sausages, sweet pumpkin, mushrooms, cabbage, onions, and more!! This set (pictured above) was one serving of two! We also had white rice, this smashed potato stuff that's really good, miso soup, and tea! The sauce they used was really succulent and you could use other things to taste, like raddish, ginger, scallions, and something else I couldn't recognize. I want to go again!! =D

Like the child that I am, everyone cooked for me and served me, as there is a special technique to cook everything evenly and I'm still a bit clumsy with my hashi (chopsticks) over hot things! But it was lots of fun!


OMG, out front of the restaurant was the most hideous STUFFED BOAR!!!! This thing had three holes in it's head (assuming from the bullets) that the taxidermist didn't fill in!!! CREEPY!!!! Hide even stuck his finger in one as a joke and I almost vomited! Can you believe how huge it is???

The view from the restaurant was mountains and TONS of beautiful flowers in soft blue, pink, lavender, and white!! (There was an entire valley beneath us with the flowers and I took lots of pictures but figured most people wouldn't be interested in a bunch of pictures of the same flowers in different colors, LOL! If you are, email me and I'll send them over! Otherwise, let's carry on with the excitement!!)

HORSE PARK!!!!! You can take lessons here (for a ridiculously exorbitant fee!! Then again, horses are a bit rarer here I suppose...) and visit the horses! These two tiny guys were out front and you could feed them some carrots for a buck so we all took a turn! They were greedy little buggers, but very funny!

The pony drooled allll over Hide and he wasn't able to wash his hands for a while!! YUMMM!




This horse, named Happy, was being cleaned by his owner. She was very friendly and talked to us about all the horses! We really appreciated her help! Isn't he a beauty??

Miharu had the best connection with this horse! They were *actually* dancing together!!!!!!!!!!
The horse was going back and forth so Miharu copied him and they both kept it up! The friendly woman told us the horse was ready to go outside and run around a bit! (Her rider, a girl of maybe 14 had won a lot of ribbons riding this horse!! Very impressive!!)


This is Heavenly!!!! I loveeeeeeeeeeee this horse!! I'm definitely going up to visit him again!! Everyone was really sweet and let me take my time until I could pet him all up and down his neck and face! But any time the others would reach out to him he would shirk away a bit or scare them by pushing his nose at their hands. I think he was just trying to get used to their smell. Once I could pet his neck the friendly lady said he had gotten used to me! The joke for the rest of the day (thanks Mi!) was that he was my boyfriend! =D


This was Zelda! I really love this picture!! Miharu and Zelda just stared at each other, sizing each other up for a few minutes in total silence! We said they were communicating telepathically!! Soul mates?? I think so!!




When we moved around to the outside of the barn to move on and see the other sites, someone noticed that Heavenly had walked to the other side of his 'room' and stuck his head out! I ran over to give him another pat and tell him goodbye! I hope I get to see him again!! I could have spent all day there!!!

From the top of the horse park, the view was amazing!! Nothing but mountains and sunshine that day!! We were very lucky!!

After the horse park we went over to a massive cave that you can walk through! But first we decided to climb down and soak our feet in the 'healthy, fresh spring cave water.' The problem was... it was FREEZING!!! =D

We only lasted three or four minutes before strapping the shoes back on and moving through!

The entrance to the cave features a giant, SMOKE-BREATHING, RED-EYED dragon! We were so scared!! ;)
There's also a bunch of statues of famous men and gods off to the right.


It's the year of the cow... so naturally there were wooden cows to pose with up front... naturally... =D

It's working?? Really??? Gosh, I'd hate to think how it could break!! ;)


This sign cracked me up! If you did it you could see some small stalagmites. Miharu decided to model for us how it works!


And then we had a run-in (TWO, actually) with a BAT!! Ohhh yes! Flying low and over our heads! I jumped in Mi's lap a few times! Just from this picture I'm sure you can imagine how preposterous it looked, LOL!


Still inside the cave!! After we left we visited the souvenir shop (just like Disneyland, the cave actually ended *in* the souvenir shop) and bought some good stuff!! Miharu bought a towel (very popular here to keep in your purses to wipe your hands with rather than use paper towels in the ladies' rooms) and I bought some chocolate rocks to share!! YUM!!

After the cave we visited Miharu's new apartment for about an hour and watched an EXILE concert DVD she got! Then it was off to meet Asumi for an authentic Spanish dinner!! We all sampled a little bit of everything and this was what was on the menu that night:
~Garlic soup
~Bread with bruschetta (tomato, onion, and some spices... I think) =D
~Baked scallops
~Baked shrimp with garlic oil and spices
~Ham salad (slices of ham 'on' a salad)
~Spanish Omelet
~Beef stew with bread
~Seafood Pallea
~Mushroom Pallea
~Dessert



LOL, sorry the picture was sideways!! This is what was left of the seafood pallea and our plates! Naturally the seafood was all fresh and DELICIOUS!! I couldn't believe how BIG the shimp, scallops, and others were!!

Dessert was your choice of sinfully amazing chocolate pudding or a 'rare cheese' pot with honey!! I had the chocolate but traded Asumi a bite of hers for a bite of mine! They were both good but that chocolate was by far the best I've had here in Japan!! Not too sweet, just pure and perfect!!


Asumi and Miharu showing off the mushroom pallea before we dug into it!! It was so nice to see Asumi! Hide was tired and since he was driving we had to leave her after only 2 hours, but we're going to hang out again in a couple of weeks and we'll see the hijinx we get into then!! I can't wait!!