Kobe Weekend, Day 3

So on to the final day of my stay in Kobe!

Yuri, being the bestest bud that she is, totally enables my love of sweets. Because of that, one of the first places we hit on my third day was a store she thought I’d like. This particular place was a purveyor of “mochi cream.” Mochi, in case you didn’t know, is a traditional Japanese sweet (categorically called “wagashi”) consisting of sweet pounded rice wrapped around a filling. The standard fillings are bean pastes of some variety.  These, however, have fillings of different flavored creams. I chose one flavored with kinako (toasted soybean flour), and black sesame.

In addition, we relaxed over coffee and chatted before heading out for the rest of our day.

See? This smile pretty much sums up my whole stay.

Also, along the way we came across this shop specializing in omuraisu, or omelet rice. Basically, flavored rice wrapped in a thin omelet with some kind of sauce. They had the most adorable fake-food storefront. Of course I had to take pictures.

After wandering a while, we came to the highlight of the day: sushi! Kaitenzushi, to be exact. Kaiten means “rotation”, and zushi is sushi. So it was a sushi bar of the conveyer belt persuasion.  Because there are a lot of pictures for this part, I think less words and more eye candy is the way to go!

The ordering screen. If something you want isn’t coming around, you can order it yourself using this nifty thing.

Menchi katsu sushi. Menchi katsu are basically deep-fried mincemeat patties. Yep, on sushi with mayo.

California uramaki. Ura means “underside”, and maki means “roll”, so it’s basically the Japanese term for an inside-out roll.

Ikura, or salmon roe. And this style of sushi is called “gunkan”, or battleship sushi.

I….actually can’t remember what this was. I’ll ask Yuri and get back to you… <.<  >.>

Edit: Here's what Yuri said: "軍艦巻きの具の名前は「松前漬け」だよ。数の子（herring roe）、するめ（dried cuttlefish）、こんぶ、にんじんをみりんとしょうゆで味付けしたものよ。"

Allow me to translate. This neta is called Matsumaezuke, or Matsumae pickle. It's made of kasunoko (herring roe), surume (dried cuttlefish), konbu kelp, and carrots flavored with mirin (sweet cooking sake), and soy sauce. 教えてくれてありがとうね、ゆりちゃん！

Salmon with basil mayo.

Seared bonito (skipjack tuna, I think is what it’s called in English?)

Unagi, or pike eel.

Uni! Sea urchin, and a tie with ikura as my favorite neta, or sushi topping.

Tuna with grated daikon radish.

Nikudango, or meatball, sushi. With mayo. Mmmm….

A “super” piece of nigiri (the topping-on-thumb-sized-ball-of-rice style), with tuna, egg, tuna salad, nori shreds, mayonnaise, and a leaf of lettuce to hold it in.

My tiramisu-flavored cream dessert. It was really good, but possibly actually too sweet. That, or I was so full from all the sushi that I couldn’t enjoy it as much as if I had started with it. Maybe next time I’ll go with dessert first, haha.

And finally, the carnage….

Mwahahahaha.