The Ups and Downs of Kawaguchiko

Yesterday I visited the Fuji Q highland theme park with 4 of my friends and had a great time. We thought that Monday would have been very quiet and uncrowded but were soon to discover that this was not the case. We were sharing the theme park with thousands of University Students making the most of their last few weeks of summer holidays. It was a quite a shock when we were told that the wait for some rides would be 3 hours long. We couldn’t believe it! In the 6 hours we spent at Fuji Q we were able to ride 4 of the attractions and spent a total of 4.5 hours standing in line. However, the rides and attractions themselves were amazing and we soon forgot about all the waiting as we were flying through the air and dropping down huge drops on the various rollercoaster.

The highlight of the day for me was the Do Don Pa, a super fast rollercoaster that accelerates to 176km/h in 1.8sec! It was extremely scary but very exhilarating. My whole body was shaking for about 20 minutes after the ride.

After the day at the theme park, my friends and I ate Houtou noodles at a traditional restaurant in Kawaguchiko. Houtou are wide noodles, served in miso based soup with lots of pumpkin, mushrooms and seasonal vegetables and are incredibly delicious. I highly recommend a trip to Fuji Q followed by a dinner of Houtou noodles as a terrific day out.

White Tuna

White Tuna

When I visited the States, I went to a sushi restaurant and stumbled upon a new type of sushi, “white tuna,” or as some Americans call it, “Super White Tuna.” Now I have tried just about every type of sashimi out there and was amazed to find something that I have neither heard of nor tasted. As soon as I got home, I checked online to find out what it was. I found out that most restaurants that serve this “white tuna” are not actually serving tuna but rather, escolar, snake mackerel. Escolar is super high in fat, causing a laxative effect in many people and has been banned in some countries, including Japan, because of this. That would explain my surprise at finding this at a sushi bar in the States. The real “white tuna” is actually albacore and is known as shiro maguro in sushi bars. This is what is usually considered the white tuna in Japan but of course, if you're surprised by the look and taste of the “white tuna” here in the states, remember, its probably escolar. Be careful!