On Saturday morning Yukari walked us over to a tofu store. It was housed in a big building that used to hold a large number of tofu shops now there are only a few left open and we could only see one in the building that was open that day. It seamed as if the shop was run by a elderly couple. They make the tofu on sight and sell it from out of big sinks of water that have been casted into the floor ( I didn't bring my camera so I dont have a phot but Yukari had a camera so i will see if I can get her pictures). We bought a large chunk of tofu wrapped up in bamboo paper as well as some fried tofu and some potato starch noodles. The noodles were truly strange, they were in water and as they had nearly the same refractive index as the water it was very hard to see them, it was not until we put the sauce into the water that we could see them. It was strange though as the noodles were the absence of the brown water.
After putting the tofu in the fridge covered with water we took the Norokko to Farm Tomita ( we had to get off at a temporary station called "lavender field station" that is set up just during the summer while the flowers are out). We walked around the farm and felt very much like tourist, but we were in good company as there were so many other tourist the vast majority of which were tourist from Honshu. We got to sit quietly by ourselves up at the top of a hill and look over all the different farms. There were lots of shops in the farm and it was amazing to see all the different lavender paraphernalia. From your usual suspects of soaps, postcards, oils and lotions to lavender flavoured cheesecake and lemonade ( the latter two we tried). Back on the Norokko we too the train further down the line to Furanno. After a alfresco lunch in the park next to the train station we hired bikes and too a ride out of town via the river and through the farm land. We got off our bikes at one point to walk along a stony path. To one side were wheat fields and to the other were very tall planes ( just over the top of my head or a little higher). On these tall plants were vast numbers of grass hoppers and it brought me great delight to run ahead and scare the grass hoppers so that I could see so many of then moving at once. Compared to the day before this bike ride was a dream as it was so very flat. The five o-clock tran took us back from Furanno to Asahikawa. The plan was to go back to the hostel and then later go out to eat big bowls of veggie soup from Chaos=Heaven ( see earlier post), but very sadly this was not to be. We got back to the hostel and after making friends with a Australian, Tim, satdown to have drink with Tim, Isao and some of the other travellers. We invited Tim to come and eat with us at Chaos=Heaven but where we got there it was too full, the waiter said to come back in half an hour. We went off to the den an Australian bar at the top of a very dark and unmaintained staircase and had a beer. After 45 minutes we went back to Chaos =Heaven but it had closed!! With no desire to try and find vegetarian food late at night ( it was about 9pm at this time) David and I fell back to making food from supplies bout from Lawson's. back at the hostel I cooked us dinner with input of two Japanese university students that were trying to help me find something to season the stir fry with, they found it funny that David had used BBQ sauce to season our food the night before and wanted to help me make a better decision.
All the guests of the hostel we in the communal area and it was lovely to spend time talking. Yukari and Isao went out and prepared a. Pice of cake as it was one of the guests birthdays the next day. We all sung happy birthday and there was lots of clapping. Such a nice gesture felt very typical of Yukari and Isao's hospitality, going out of there way to make peoples stay pleasant. We stayed up until 12 or so when most people had gone to bed.
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