Saturday, April 26, 2008

Nihon Matsuri

Having sold our house and not quite closed on the new one, we're currently experiencing a state of homelessness at the "In Towne Suites", which might be more aptly named, In Towne Slums. They wouldn't be so bad if the other tenants didn't creep me out, the room didn't smell bad, the floors and walls weren't so dirty, and if it was a little roomier, but for a week, it was a good deal. We've been so busy that for the most part, Caiden's baseball games, errands around town, and the like have been keeping us away except for at night. But last night the HB headed to Wendover for a 2-day coaching clinic, (and all of the makings from our home sale in the bank--luckily, he's not a gambler) so Caiden and I have been doing our best to avoid being at the slum too much, not too hard, given that we have nothing whatsoever to do there.

Luckily, today was the Nihon Matsuri downtown--the Japanese festival. I love festivals because they're an excuse to get your face painted, eat greasy food, and be outside. This one I was especially excited to see what they would have. We watched some Kendo performers, and then checked out all of the tents for a sword for Caiden. I scoped out the food, but much to my chagrin, they didn't have any takoyaki (fried balls of octopus meat with sauce on top--sounds gross, but like eating a "viking" at the state fair). Despite Salt Lake City's variety of asian and Japanese food restaurants, takoyaki remains completely unseen. I could have found a picture of actual takoyaki, but the one below was way too good.

After getting the sword and things, we took off because our parking was going to expire and I didn't have any more cash. The HB will be back soon and we'll take off for a round of getting ready for the camping trip we'll take next weekend and whatever else we can get done outside of the hotel.

2 comments:

Tim said...

Alene:

My four days in Japan in December were the highlight of the trip. I love Pokari Sweat, for example, and a nice hot can of chocolate milk. And one night we were walking around and saw this pet store and walked through it, and somehow I was so impressed with the little Japanese animals, even though most of them were the same breeds we have here. I think just the fact that they were Japanese made me think they were cuter.

Tim

Mom & Dad Root said...

Looks like you two had fun! We saw you on the news!!