Dreams Come True

This isn't about the famous Japanese pop band. This is about a delectable desire becoming a sweet reality. The day we discovered Club Harie in Shiga.

Club Harie is especially famous for a German sweet called baumkuchen, but the location our friends brought us to featured something much more: a cake buffet. That's right, all-you-can-eat-cake for 90 minutes (and about 2100 yen!). Hope you have several napkins to wipe your drool.

Above is what we saw when we entered the French country-style bakery. First: the cake bar, lined with staff waiting to serve beautiful slices of cake. Connected to the cake bar was a drink bar with several coffee and tea choices, juice and water. In the second and third picture above you can see some of the accompanying goodies, ranging from brownies and sweet breads to delightful petits fours.

We sat at our table, anxiously waiting for our waitress to give us the go-ahead and noticed the following warning:

But that looks WONDERFUL!

Finally, it was time for round one. We headed to the counter, and came back with this:

And this:


Heaven!

When we arrived I thought for sure we'd give the place a run for its money. However, I was surprised to find that even I, a girl with a mouth full of sweet teeth and an insatiable saccharine desire, was slowing down before finishing even the first plate of cakes.

Chad, on the other hand, fell in love.

What a striking contrast between the red strawberries and his blue eyes! Amore!

Soon the staff brought out freshly made baumkuchen, still warm. Below you can see the cake on the spit (the bakers layer cake batter on the spit while turning it) and get a glimpse at the cute style of the bakery.

The cake was served with ice cream, banana cream and whipped cream. See the rings made from the layering of the batter? They resemble the growth rings of a tree, and give the cake its name (Baumkuchen translates to "tree cake").

Everything was delightfully displayed, and the flavors matched the presentation. Subtle, sweet, and oh-so-satisfying!

Maybe a bit too satisfying? We'll definitely never forget it, that's for sure!

Beer Gardens and Asahi Brewery

It was John and Joel's first night in our area of Japan, and we had to make it special. What could be better than hitting up Nagoya's Haunted House (way too short for the cost, but really creepy nonetheless), shopping in Sakae, and then heading to a beer garden?

Beer Garden Miami is a pretty famous beer garden in Nagoya in which you can eat over 100 different dishes. It's a tabehoudai and nomihoudai (all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink) for about 150 minutes, and it costs about 38.00 USD. Unlike many beer gardens around the world, beer gardens in Japan are usually found on rooftops of department store buildings. The gardens have a very open, relaxing atmosphere. Beer Garden Miami is on a rooftop of a building over 11 stories high, and is across from Nagoya Station (a very convenient location!).

We could understand why the place was so packed--it was really cool.

The Beer Stations

On the right side of the garden were the beer stations. It was a beautiful sight. Stick in your glass, press a button (even deciding whether or not you want head on the beer), and there you have it. A never-ending beer flow for your entire stay at Miami.

On the left side of the garden was the large selection of food. Some of it, pictured below, was precooked:


Korokke (a croquette), dango, pizza, fried
onigiri (rice ball), edamame and some other
fried foods.

As for the uncooked foods, you can choose what you want before bringing it back to your table to cook at a little grill.

Kanpai! Cheers!

After our night at the beer garden, our beer excursions were far from over. An Asahi Brewery tour was booked for 3:00 a couple days later.

We felt like this adventure could be an excellent adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory...except with beer. Year after year of beautiful beer.

Asahi makes several products aside from the Asahi-brand beer -- including, but not limited to, soft drinks, whiskey and wines. Additionally, the company has business agreements with companies like Miller and Löwenbräu of Germany.

Malt and Barley
(It says ASAHI in the circles)

Asahi comes in all sizes, from bottles as big as an
arm, to little bitty cans the height of a pointer finger.

I was surprised to learn how much Asahi does with recycling. The uniform pictured above is made from recycled plastic bottles. There were posters lining the walls with pictures made by school children who went on the brewery tour and learned about Asahi's Eco-friendliness. It seems kind of weird that kids would go on a brewery tour, even if they are learning about helping the environment, but maybe it's because Asahi has plants that produce soft drinks, too (although this plant doesn't...).

Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of a lot of the cool stuff inside the brewery because it was prohibited. However, we let go of our disappointment pretty easily when we were brought the the final stage of the tour: the tasting room!

Joel, Chad, our tour guide and John

VIP status

Air-puffed cracker snacks

Cheese sticks and beef jerky!

A rare photo of Chad and Joel captured in their most natural state!

Quite possibly Chad's biggest smile since our wedding day ;-)

We were allowed 3 free beers, but were
supposed to drink them in 30 minutes!
And then, they offered us a 4th!

And we look forward to seeing you again, Asahi Brewery!

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Last Post Notes

1. Tanuki are kind of like red pandas, but their tales are quite a bit different. Maybe you can kind of see in the picture below:

2. The A-Bomb Dome used to be an Industrial Promotion Hall, and it was almost directly under the spot the first bomb hit in Hiroshima during World War II. After the bombing, the structure was still standing. Amazingly, it can be seen today just as it was after the bombings (although today there have been supports added to keep it standing).

3. The Pavilion of 1000 mats (Itsukushima Shrine) was built as a place to chant Buddhist sutras for fallen soldiers. "1000 mats" refers to the size of the hall. It was never fully completed, so for some it may seem a little sparse. We thought the simplicity ultimately added to a peaceful atmosphere.

4. Tina and Marco thought this particular izakaya was an old man bar because most of the patrons consisted of old men, the food was a bit cheaper than other izakayas (mostly due to the clientelle), and it closed early. Also, the atmosphere was a bit more casual than some of the styles izakayas geared toward younger crowds tend to have.

5. Tina and Marco maintained as much of their vegan diet as possible while they stayed in Japan. There were some exceptions, as it is nearly impossible to be vegan in Japan, but they returned to their normal diet as soon as they hit the flight home.