The obligatory ripoff from an over-quoted song is here!

The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away,
Waiting to take you away.

This is what I did on Sunday. Kohmura-san offered to take me away Somewhere, and since Somewhere wasn't being stuck in my room all day, I agreed to go on the mystery tour...


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Welcome passengers, to the Hyogo Magical Mystery Tour! Since you're all here, we can safely assume that you've managed to decipher the invitation that was carefully hidden in the conversations you've been having with our tour guide, Kohmura-san. Congratulations on recognizing the instructions cleverly disguised as questions and comments. Of course, you're new here, so we felt a hint or two in the form of a suggestion wouldn't ruin the surprise. In any case, we're glad to see you here!

Our first stop will be at the Sake Warehouse.
Magical attributes: coffee, sweets, and very very nice older women will appear out of nowhere.
Mysteeeriousness: Is it a sake warehouse? A cultural concert hall? A teahouse? A trendy handmade glass art shop? Here's your hints, folks.

Instructions:

The materials you can use:



Correct Answer: Sit around in the cafe/shop and impress the wonderful old lady running the place with your broken Japanese. Also, have awkward conversation with several other tour goers whom you've never seen before.

Extra Credit (worth 2 cookies) : Tell the proprietress (in Japanese) that her coffee is the best you've had in Japan. It'll be true.

Partial Credit: Play peek-a-boo with Kohmura-san's daughter.

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Well, fellow Mystery Tourists, I hope you enjoyed our first stop! I'm sure you've all met each other now and can remember the difference between Shimada-san and Shimeru-san. We sure hope so, because you'll be talking about each other using only these names for reference!

Our next stop is going to be the Sayo Sunflowers! That's right, folks, tons of 'em!

Magical Attributes: they're Yellow! Useful for blinding your foes in battle.
Mysteeeeriousness: What do you do here? Take pictures? Stroll down a country lane with your beau? Fish your young daughter out of the dirt?

Here's your materials:

Correct Answer: Marvel at the incredible beauty. The contrast between the bright yellow flowers and towering mountains topped with blue-grey clouds is fantastic.

Incorrect (but very popular) Answer: Stand around and talk awkwardly with people you don't know. Maybe Shimizu-san?

Bonus Points: Take a large group picture to commemorate the 20 minutes you spent together talking in front of the flowers. Here's an example to get you started:
In this example, you're the one holding the giant orange flyer that's in Japanese, so you can't read it. You of course know the tour guide, Kohmura-san. You also know his wife and daughter on the right, and you know that the guy on your left is Shimada-san.

Double Extra Double Dollar Bonus Points: be daring enough to try sunflower seed flavored ice cream. You'll spend Double Extra Double Dollars (quadruple, perhaps?) but it'll be worth it.

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So folks, we're at our final stop! After your long day, it's time to have a nice, relaxing, familiar, Italian meal at Barukaino.

Magical Attributes: It's an Italian restaurant. In rural Japan.
Mysteeeriouness: Is it really Italian? Will you know what you're actually ordering, since the menu has no pictures? And will they bring out the parmesan cheese you've been craving? And what on earth does barukaino mean?

Your materials are:
1) your gut instinct
2) your infallible ability to read words borrowed from other languages
3) your friends who speak Japanese

Pick one.

Correct Answer: 2) If you chose this, you were able to read enough 'supaggetei' and 'kurimusaasu' to choose mushrooms in cream sauce on spaghetti. Congratulations! It's approximately the same quality Italian food as Gypsy's in the asian ghetto, (that crappy place in Berkeley).

Incorrect Answer: 1) It's luck of the draw. But guess what? It probably has seafood of some sort in it! Hopefully the tomato sauce isn't made from ketchup.

Incorrect Answer: 3) You choose the pizza whose name had a lot of kanji in front of it, but your friend said it was delicious. The toppings include shrimp, squid tentacles, and fish liver. The sauce is jet black and is made from squid ink.

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Thanks again for choosing the Hyogo Magical Mystery tour! Our next scheduled event will be casually hinted at in the near future, so don't miss it!



PS. This cheese thing is not going away. The cream sauce had zero cheese in it and I had to specificaly ask them to bring out some parmesan to put on top. I gotta find me some black market Italian cheeses. Not your run of the mill stuff, either. I need something harder... Romano or asiago...and some designer brie to keep me going through the day. Wisconsin, you lied to me! You said I could stop whenever I wanted. But no, I've got the sweet, sweet cheese in my system now and I gotta get another creamy, dairy-filled hit...