Seaside pictures

Tetsu and I went for a drive to the Pacific coast of Japan... about a three hour drive away.  Just a drive, no purpose in mind.  We visited the fish market again but I've taken pictures of that place before...  We did buy fish (but mistakenly thought they were well protected in their Styrofoam box...  They weren't... The cats had a midnight feast) and we had a sushi lunch.

The seaside was windy and cold but that didn't seem to stop a lone fisherman out on the rocks.

I wonder if he caught anything.

While I enjoyed taking pictures Tetsu went looking for rocks.  He likes rocks and when I came back to him he had quite a collection of ones he liked.

"This one looks like it has a cross in it.  This one is brown on one side and black on the other.  This one is so white and a perfect oval."

"Tetsu... I think that one is a piece of worn down cement."

Nothing like a wife who bursts your dreams.
 

As we drove by a port we found all these fishing boats tied to the pier and ready for their first fishing expedition of the year.  Some sort of ceremony with each boat flying its own flag from a long bamboo pole. 

The ceremony is probably today so we didn't see the boats setting sail... It must be a colorful exhibit!

And do you know what this character is supposed to be? We stopped at a factory for a tour, samples, a look at a mini-museum... and a large sales area.  This is a spicy cod roe character!!!  Yes, cod roe.  Like in cod fish eggs.  In Japanese, the spicy type is called mentaiko and we were visiting a mentai park...  Mentaiko is delicious and can be used in lots of recipes.  I'm not sure the character is going to outsell Hello Kitty but we bought mentaiko and I will hone my cooking skills this week.