Come for the Tortoise, stay for the food.

It's not every cafe you walk into and step on tortoise shit, but that is what happened to us last weekend. Ana and I went to Gifu-city for the day. We walked all the way up to Gifu castle and the surrounding area. Nearby, we spotted a little cafe called Natural Cafe. It looked like an interesting place so we decided to have lunch there. The cafe is on the second floor of a century old building. The first floor is a little shop, slash, gallery. This is where the tortoise was, running loose around the ground floor and veranda. It was quite strange but very interesting. It does bring up the thought though, that this is a generational pet. The food by the way was great. We had nice Thai green curry, a standard for Japanese hippy cafes.

Gifu castle was interesting even if it is a reconstruction. It was bombed during the war. It was a significant castle in its day, and we could see why. The view from the top was extensive. We could make out Nagoya on the horizon and the views in all directions were astounding. Wish it was a little clearer, summer here is a bit hazy.

Gifu city had more of the feel Ana and I are used to. It reminded us more of where we were before, with the exception of having a lot more older buildings. I have posted some pictures so please go look, that means you Chad!

Have a good time doing whatever it is you are doing.

Taking pics

Hey everyone! I have uploaded some pictures from two weeks ago. Ana and I went back to HanaFesta to look at the roses again. I wasn't inspired to take any pictures of the flowers but I did take some pictures (hopefully interesting) on the walk back home.

One picture I would have liked to have gotten was the giant hornet we saw while we were at the park. Apparently Japan has the worlds biggest hornet. It can be over three inches long and spits flesh eating acid, no shit. We were walking on one of the many paths around the hills in the park when Ana spotted this thing that looked like a bird, no shit. These things are bigger than a humming bird, no shit. Apparently these things go into the hives of honey bees and kill them all, eat the honey and steal the baby bees to feed to their young. Did I mention that around forty people each year are killed by these things, no shit. Admittedly, you need to be allergic but still, forty people. One other thing is that the larvae of these things are considered a delicacy by some, no shit. That's probably the people who get killed, I don't think I want to be trying to steal these things babies.

Anyway, check out the pics if you wish. Have fun, be good and STAND UP BIG!