Agatanomori, bijitsukan, onsen, sushi and inago

So this Saturday and Sunday I did some more sightseeing.

We went to a park called agatanomori park. It is a small park, but has cosy feel to it. We did pick a bad day to go here, as it had rained the whole day before and it was still a bit cloudy and cold. None the less we took some nice pictures and had a bread pick nick. We also found out that there was a local (farmers?)market at the entrance of the park.

After the park (whilst walking back home) we decided to enter the Matsumuto bijitsukan. Bijitsukan is Japanese for museum. In this particular museum they were, unfortunately, showing modern art. My personal taste does not go towards modern art, but we decided to go inside anyway. Have to try new things now and then. After a quick look around of about an hour and a half we decided to call it a day.

The onsen! Tatataaaaaaa!
Onsen are basically a public bath located around a hot spring which provides the water that is used in the bath. They are normally found around mountains/volcanoes.
We went to the Asama onsen. The price to get in was 630 yen for an adult. The bathhouse itself consisted of a dressing room, a row of showers, a hot inside bath, a small cold inside bath, a sauna and the outside bath. When going to the onsen in Japan there are certain rules that need to be uphold.
First of all, you wash your entire body before you enter any of the pools. So you go in clean! The pools are not there to clean you, they are there for relaxation.
Big towels are not allowed. You can bring a small towel along with you, to place on your forehead or to sit on when cooling down outside. Also the towels are not suppose to be submerged into the baths.
Either way, it was a relaxing evening. In the end I do think I got a bit sick as I switched to much from warm to cold and vice versa. Something to remember for the next time.

Kaiten sushi
We went to a kaiten sushi place today. This is a place where you can eat sushi of course, but it is done in a special way. There are tables and next to those tables is a conveyor belt. On this belt the sushi is placed and if you see something you like you can take it. Now if you want something special that isn't on the belt you can order it. It is then brought to you via another conveyor belt. The place we went to brought the specially-ordered sushi on a small Shinkansen train to your table. Very funny to see :P At the end you will have to pay according to the amount of plates you have. Each plate would cost you 105 yen.

INAGO!
Inaga is a local speciality. The flavour we had was somewhat sweet, a bit too sweet. It had a bit of a crunchy bite and still 'looked' you in the eyes when you ate it :P So what it is you might ask? Well...Inago are fried or baked grasshoppers! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I ate a grasshopper today. The flavour we had was very sweet, even some Japanese thought it was too sweet. There are apparently more flavours and some of which aren't this sweet.

So there you have it. A lot of fun in two days!