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!! :)