My husband and I tend to lounge around the apartment on weekends, but we wanted to see the Hachinohe City Museum of Art's Special Exhibit, "
Neko" (ねこ, Japanese for "cat") before it ended so we headed out to Hachinohe this weekend.
We started off with lunch at Nagisa Cafe (ナギサカフェ). The aim of the restaurant is to serve food that is good for people's health, so the meals are very wholesome and include a lot of veggies. The restaurant is in an old Japanese house, so the atmosphere is very peaceful and relaxing. The main room with tables was full when we arrived, so we sat in the side room, with the low tables and floor cushions.
We had the "Nagisa Gohan" (なぎさごはん 1100yen: salad, soup, 3 small side dishes, rice, and choice of main dish--we went for the chicken katsu (cutlet) with white sauce) and "Nagisa Curry" (なぎさカレー 1100yen: green curry and rice, soup, salad, and 2 small side dishes). And of course I needed something sweet, so I added a "Sweets Set" (choice of one of the daily desserts, 300yen with a meal instead of the regular price of 500yen) and went for the "Gobou Gateau Chocolat" (ごぼうのガトーショコラ). Everything was delicious and we are definitely planning on going back again the next time we are in Hachinohe.
After lunch we went to the Hachinohe City Museum of Art. The parking lot was full, so we parked a couple of blocks away at the Sakurano Department Store. The exhibit was just as amazing as we had expected it to be and we ended up buying two photo books: one from the exhibit "ねこ" ("Neko," or "Cats" in English) and another book of cats, "ねこ歩き" ("Neko Aruki," or "Go with cats" in English).
After the exhibit, we went shopping at the Kaneiri book store (カネイリ) and the Sakurano Department Store (さくら野百貨店八戸店). It just so happened that there was a Valentine's Day chocolate fair, "Marche du Chocolat!" going on at Sakurano, so naturally I had to check it out. And it was a good thing we went because I found the chocolates with a box design by Aya Kato that I had wanted but couldn't find online.
In fact, I found out that there were multiple box and chocolate designs, so I ended up buying three different boxes--which ended up costing over 7000yen ($75 CAD). @_@ Expensive, but the tins (I opted for the metal tins instead of the regular paper boxes, hence the cost) are gorgeous, and even the paper bag was lovely, so totally worth the price! (I haven't opened the boxes yet so I only have pictures of the boxes, but you can see pictures of the chocolates at the
AYAKATO website.)
Since we spent so much on books and chocolate, we probably had about 5hours worth of free parking, so we decided to walk a bit more around Hachinohe. We stopped by the Hachinohe tourism center, Hachinohe Portal Museum "hacchi" and checked out the free photo exhibit "Gyojin" about Hachinohe fishermen (fishers? fisher people?) by Tatsuki, Masaru on the first floor (田附勝写真展「魚人(ぎょじん)」).
After all the walking and shopping, we were rather thirsty, so we stopped at a coffee shop called (Kousai) Coffee Minami (香彩珈琲 みな実 三日町中央店) . My husband ordered the "Handmade Waffle Set" (手作りワッフルセット 540yen: waffle and choice of coffee or tea, hot/iced) while I went for the "Cocoa Float" (ココアフロート 680yen: ice cocoa with ice cream and a waffle on top!). Yummy!
That was the end of our time in Hachinohe, but not the end of our date! On the way back to Towada from Hachinohe, we stopped by a big shopping mall, Shimoda Jusco (Aeon Mall Shimoda). After walking around for a bit, we managed to clear enough space in our stomachs for dinner, so we had pasta at a chain Italian restaurant, Cappricciosa. (Pappardelle with mushrooms and ground meat in a red wine spicy tomato sauce パッパルデッレ キノコと挽き肉、赤ワインのスパイシートマトソース 1220yen, and seafood spaghetti pescatore 漁師風スパゲティ ペスカトーレ 990yen)
When we got home, we also tried out some sakura (cherry blossom) wine (咲くらのわいん "Sakura no Wine") that we had picked up from Kaldi, an import store in Shimoda Jusco. Usually when I try to drink wine, just a single sip overwhelms me with the taste of "alcohol!" But the alcohol content in this was actually just 5% (the same as beer) so I was able to have about three sips. Obviously I don't know anything about what makes a good wine, but since I was able to drink more of the sakura wine than I have of almost any other wine, I must say I thought it was pretty good. Plus the packaging/design is really lovely.
All in all, a lovely day out!
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