Wakayama (part 3)

So the decision to go to Wakayama was kind of spur-of-the-moment. We just found it in the guidebook, and it looked closer than some of our other options. We got to the city in the afternoon, took the bus to a hotel we found in the guidebook, and settled in. After spending too much time trying to tell the man at the front desk that we didn't want meals included with our room, we left to find a restaurant. Walking around the area, we started noticing that there weren't any restaurants. Or convenience stores. Or anything. We finally found a small building with a small plastic food display outside. And lots of karaoke. There were a couple of women working at the bar, and one older man (he must have been 80 or so) singing on a small stage. We ordered some food, and Bryan made the mistake of opening the karaoke book. The women were really friendly, and they took it as an indicaton that we wanted to sing. After a lot of convincing, we got up on stage.
And the women who worked there LOVED Bryan. I'm pretty sure even during the peak season, not many foreigners come to the part of town we were in, so Bryan was exotic. This woman couldn't stop hugging him.
It turned out to be a good night.
The next day, we took the bus back to the main city and walked around the castle grounds.
It may just be that I haven't been to enough castles in Japan, but they all look about the same to me. We walked around until it started to rain, then headed to the train station. Suddenly, after walking down the hill from the castle, we were in a small zoo. We couldn't tell if it was part of the castle grounds- there were no entrance booths or even personnel. It was just strange happening upon birds, monkeys and bears when we least expected it.
African cranes


This monkey seemed a bit eager for us to get close to the cage. I was just waiting for him to pee on us.


This bear seemed so bored and lonely. It was a little sad.


A mix between a rabbit and a deer?

We spent the rest of the day exploring the city, including a couple of shrines. And it just kept raining on us.
But we did find one cherry tree in blossom.
After we made it back to the hotel, we discovered another restaurant in the area- it was packed, and we had to wait 30 minutes in the rain, so we figured it was good. It WAS good, but all they served was meat. We ordered plates of raw beef and chicken and cooked it at our tables. After not having eaten much meat for the last few years, it was a bit of a shock to the system.
Again, I will have to write more tomorrow.