Utsunomiya

I left Nagoya last Thursday afternoon (11/14/08) with John Yim (my trainer) up to Utsunomiya for training and meeting the other FHI team...wished I hadn't. I gave up my 5-star Marriott hotel for a no-star Tobu Grande hotel. People, there is nothing grand about this hotel. The room is a lot smaller, meaning that my head is a foot from the ceiling. My goodness, the decor is out dated, my tv isn't even a flat-panel tv, and most of all I have to duck to enter the bathroom! LOL. Definitely meant for a Japanese! (I will post pictures soon)

The FHI team over in Chita-Handa (near Nagoya - where I was working) thinks Utsunomiya is out in the boonies - true statement. I can see the mountains closely where I am staying. Although, the population isn't as large as Nagoya, the city itself is somewhat big. The buildings are not as high as in Nagoya, but the city is spread out so it covers a lot of ground. Big, yet small...if that makes any sense.

Taking the Shinkansen (bullet-train) from Nagoya to Utsunomiya.

Click on the image and you can see my train route to Utsunomiya.

Arrived at Utsunomiya.

Saturday 15, 2008, John took me for a walk around main street to get acquainted with the city. We walked everywhere trying to find a place to eat. Most restaurants are open for lunch from 12-2pm and re-open at 5 for dinner. Unfortunately we were walking around town at the wrong time looking for food (3pm-ish). We went to 4 different places and finally found a place that was opened (Korean f00d).

In search of food, we found a parade full of college students dressed up in costumes. Not sure what they were trying to do but there were at least 80 deep. I wish I had my camera to video, but I had to improvise and use the phone to capture this.