The Chicken Shack

Ok, so we've heard from EVERYONE that the Chicken Shack is THE restaurant to go to around these parts! It's about 25 minutes away from our house, up on a mountain, but it is super cool! It's actually comprised of a few restaurants all interconnected with lots of outdoor seating (which I'm sure is super fun and scenic in the spring, summer, and fall, but not this time of year!) but also with very authentic, sitting on mats on the floor type indoor seating as well. The Chicken Shack is known for its "chicken on a stick" with a sweet terryaki sauce that is OUT OF THIS WORLD! We totally forgot to take a picture of the food itself, but suffice to say, it was messy but super tasty.

This was a rather large, and quite scary "decoration" in the parking lot. Not really sure how it entices folks to spend money and eat lots of food....

Another scary billboard type decoration in the parking lot.

Decorations across the street. Apparently, there' s another restaurant over there too!

The waterfall behind the restaurants.

The outdoor seating looks beautiful and fun, but it was just too cold. There are heaters underneath the tables, though so if we had sat outside, our legs would have stayed nice and toasty,

A cool walkway. There were shops set up outside, and more cafeteria style dining options if we preferred.

They had plastic up around this little pond so I guess stupid people couldn't fall in the freezing water.

Our friends from church, the Northam family, took us to the Chicken Shack. This is their son, Chase, eyeballing the statues.

Captain Eric Northam with his kids Kaitlyn, Chase and Breanna. Notice the style of seating and super low ceilings! The poor servers had to crawl around on the hands and knees to bring us our food. And we weren't allowed to wear shoes up there either!

This is our awesome friend Michelle. Joel complained a lot about his legs and feet falling asleep. He would not make a good Japanese local. :-p We were actually sitting up in the balcony of the restaurant.

It is quite normal for Japanese restaurants to buy "fake food" to put on display and let folks know what your options are inside. It's quite helpful since around here, maybe only 50% of the restaurants have English menus.

This is how you buy your beer at this restaurant. We found it HILARIOUS. You can't really ID someone through a vending machine though... hmmmmm.... good thing the Japanese are super honest.

Kaitlyn and Breanna in front of a seasonal display.

I guess they put a beanie on the statue in case his head gets cold...?

The short snowman could be an innocent cultural mistake, but we think he's trying to tell the world something....

HA!

There were a lot of shrines around the Chicken Shack and what looked like hiking trails as well. When it's warmer outside, we'll have to give it a try.

We will definitely be returning here! Thank you Northam family for sharing this place and the day after Christmas with us!! :)

Holiday Lights in Hiro

Kirk and I went to Hiroshima last weekend with our friends Jeff, Hiroko, Matt and Nancy. We ate dinner at an awesome Vietnamese restaurant first then walked down to the main avenue to walk through their holiday light display. It was chilly... in the 40's. But we were full and happy after our meal, so we hardly felt the cold while walking.

The Christmas tree outside the mall where the Vietnamese restaurant was located.

Gotta love Japanese interpretations of English phrases.

The mall was around 7 stories tall and the hall/stairs were outside.

View of the restaurant from the patio that overlooked the city of Hiroshima. It's hard to take pictures that do the place justice when it's so dark outside.

The restaurant had really cool and authentic decor.

This was a special room in the restaurant that had a more casual vibe.

The boys.

The girls. Kirk thinks she looks like a "behemoth" compared to the Japanese women. Funny story though: As we were leaving the restaurant, a little girl pointed at Kirk and said something to her father in Japanese. Nancy, Matt's Japanese wife, told us she said "Dad, I've seen her in the movies!!". LOL. Apparently Kirk stands out and looks like a famous person with her blonde hair. She'd better not get used to that kind of attention...

View inside the outdoor mall.

The beginning of the holiday light display on the main road in downtown Hiro.

A giant shoe...?

Kirk thinks every leaf looks like marijuana.

Bonus picture of a jet that was decorated on base.

Orphanage and Futsal

We went on a little excursion to Hiroshima last weekend with our church to hang out with the 4-10 year olds at an orphanage. The language barrier was difficult, but these kids were so sweet and really smart! We had a really good time and definitely plan on going back a lot while we're here.

Some folks from church put on a skit to tell the Christmas story. Thank goodness for translators!!

We sat down with a group of about 5 kids and helped them make Christmas angels out of paper plates.

New church friends.

We made a BIG mess. There was glitter glue everywhere!

The next day, I had a Futsal (indoor soccer) tournament with my team, Chaos. :) The picture quality is poor because Joel took them with his iPod and gyms don't photograph well as it is, LOL. There were a lot of differences in how the Japanese play their tournaments, but I really liked it. Everyone was super respectful and kind, even if they just took you out. There was a lot of bowing to one another too. It was great to be able to share a sport with another culture. As long as I remain uninjured, I intend to keep playing. :)

There were 2 American teams and 4 Japanese teams.

We were team Chaos and the other American team was called the Tasmanian Devils.

Chaos came in third and the T. Devils came in first. It was super fun but I was super sore the next day!!