Aloha!!

Big Dog here in Japan once again!  I am visiting my wife's family in her hometown of Awaji.  We flew into Kansai International Airport and stayed with my friend for a few days.  He is the one that drove us all the way to Awaji.  Here is a picture of the highway exit ramp showing that we arrived in Awaji.  

It was very unusual to see that there was a ferris wheel at this rest area.  This location was called the Oasis and it was quite a large rest area.  There were gift shops, restaurants, a food court area and a look out area in back.  We could see the bridge that we travelled across to reach this destination.  

Sorry, it was quite a hot day and the picture may not be very clear but you can faintly see the large bridge in the distance.  I think the temperature this day reached 35 degrees Celcius or 95 degrees Fahrenheit.  Now that was HOT ! !

Awaji is very well known for its round onions, they are just as sweet as our Maui onions.  Personally, I still think that the Maui onion is the sweetest among those that I have eaten.

I believe that everyone has heard and eaten takoyaki once before but there was a new dish from this area that totally amazed me.

It is called Akashiyaki and it is something that looks very similar to takoyaki.

You may notice that the way it looks reminds me of takoyaki as well.

But, boy was I fooled!  It has a texture of a fluffy egg omelet but still includes the piece of tako surprise in the middle.  The other thing that was different about it was that there was no takoyaki sauce.  We ate it with a dashi broth.  That is probably why I felt that it closely resembled an egg omelet just like dashimaki tamago.
 
I hope to be able to experience more interesting foods during my trip to Japan! 

Iroiro oishii mono tabemasu! !