Kamiooka: Another Parfait Day

Whew! A week has zipped by since the date of this post but I'm going to pretend it's still Saturday, October 15, and chronicle some of the highlights of the past several days before I board the Shinkansen for Kanazawa with Fearless and Matsuzaki-san the day after tomorrow.

Yesterday -- the "pretend" yesterday -- Artistic was introduced to the wonders of Takano Fruit Parlor in Kamiooka. She opted for the chocolate parfait, the only non-fruit option, which was not what I expected of the only serious vegetarian in my current social circle. Life is full of surprises.

The rest of us health nuts tried the three seasonal fruit versions:

Chestnut for Fearless and Hiroko

Grape (three varieties) for Hisayo and Yuuko

Pear garnished with white chocolate for the author

Our 10:00 am desserts were followed by a lovely and delicious luncheon at the house that belonged to Hiroko's deceased parents. A mansion by Japanese standards and with a kitchen sink enormous by even American standards, the house is still furnished and contains fascinating family mementos along with numerous awards and gifts presented to Admiral Otsuka during his illustrious career.

For me, the best part of the day was meeting Hiroko's youngest son who drove several of us from Kamiooka station to the house and then kindly zipped back to Kamiooka station to retrieve the hostess gift I'd left under my chair at Takano Fruit Parlor.

Once I figure out how to say "I'm such an idiot" in Japanese, I think I'll have it printed on a half dozen t-shirts.