The foods we ate. . .

We ate well in Gifu. In addition to the aforementioned latkes, we ate a lot of Japanese food.

First, the (also aforementioned) mochi. This is what it looked like after the pounding:And this is what it looked like after it had dried for two days and been cut up:The mochi was then put in soup. It was very sticky, but otherwise tasteless.

Our friend's father also taught Mike to make this traditional egg dish. The dish is a little complicated since after you whisk the eggs, you pour a little into the hot pan, cook it, fold it, pour more, and so on. It ends up looking like folded crepes made of egg.

We also went to the sushi restaurant our friend’s father has been going to every day for the past thirty years. This figure was not an exaggeration, as it was corroborated by other family members. I have to admit, the sushi was really, really good.Also, and this is truly an only-in-Japan experience, we ate this fish at the sushi place:

No big deal, right? Well, the thing about this fish is that to welcome us to Gifu, our friend’s sister had purchased this fish. She then brought it over to her mother’s house (where we were staying), and her mother then brought it to the sushi place when we all went for dinner. I mean, how else would you welcome guests, except by buying them fish? The fish, by the way, was delicious!

Also, the sushi place had this crab, which we didn’t eat, but I felt deserved a picture.Crab is actually part of the traditional New Year’s foods (called osechi ryori). Our friend’s family ordered the traditional set from a restaurant. We didn’t taste everything, but from what we ate, we can say it was pretty good.