Mottimo Pasta

Recently we tried a new Italian restaurant that uses local ingredients in their dishes. I love Italian and can be a little picky when it comes to sauces and pizza. You can't just throw mozzarella and basil together and call it a pizza. It needs a little more love. Mottimo Pasta does a really good job at Italian. I wasn't very hungry but could not stop eating my delicious lunch.

The picture is a bit small but their tag line reads: "Delicious Italian food is offered excluding pasta." I think something happened during translation. They have amazing garlic bread served in colorful steins. They also had a sweet honey bread that was quite tasty. Plus we were with this cutie!

I must rave about my amazing pasta - lotus roots, soft chestnuts, mushrooms, and chunks of pumpkin. Amazing!

I love Japanese food, but, man, they do Italian pretty well!

Lotus Roots

We live surrounded by lotus fields. I love how tall and beautiful they get through the summer. In the fall, the roots are harvested and are quite tasty. Iwakuni residents put lotus roots in everything from broth to ice cream.

Such an interesting little tuber.

Mikan Picking

Fall is my favorite season. Beautiful leaves, wonderful weather. Perfect. In Japan fall is the time of mikans. Mikans, similar to tangerines, are a seedless, easy to peel citrus that originated in Japan. In October fruit stands appear everywhere selling these delicious fruits. But why buy a bag when we can pick them fresh from the tree? Yes, let's go mikan picking.

Oshima Island is about forty minutes away and is home to many of our adventures. It is a great place for carpet sledding, SCUBA, beach fun, great hiking, fantastic cycling and now mikan picking.

The grove was nestled on the side of one of the many mountains on the island. It was a perfect day for picking.

We chose the "all you can eat" picking option for one hour. We also bought bags to take the fruits of our labor (too much?) home.

Mikans are so delicious and easy to eat. In the last 24 hours I've eaten ten of them. You can overdose on vitamin C, right? Hmm....

"I've got a lot of fond memories of that dog."

Futsal

If you've been a reader of the last three years of my life then you know I am not a huge fan of organized sports. I played soccer until middle school and had a massive crush on Chipper Jones from the Atlanta Braves. That's about the extent of my sports-love. I enjoy attending live games, but watching sports on television just ain't my thing.

But given the opportunity to play. I'm in. Or in this case, Dustin got the chance. A coworker of his has a group that meets every so often in Hiroshima to play futsal.

Futsal is a variation of soccer that originated in Brazil almost a century ago. It is played on a small indoor field with no paint lines or walls. The small space means playes must be more creative. Japan loves their baseball, but futsal spectators are growing.

The video is a bit long and I've given up trying to find exciting moments to display. No photo this time. Just Google futsal. Neat stuffs.