A night in Tsuruga, Fukui - Day 1 - Factories, fish and a whole lotta snow

With a bunch of time on my hands and not much to do other than stay at home and take care of the boy, Yukino and I booked a night in Tsuruga, Fukui.  Never heard of it? Neither had I until I put my finger on it in Google Maps as our random destination.  With a nice mountain drive in between Osaka and it and some ocean thrown in it seemed like a nice place.  Plus, it has a nuclear power plant.  Perfect for those blackout situations.

 We tried to leave as early as possible and drove to Kyoto using the new highway that no one uses due to the crazy toll prices.  I hate traffic so it was worth the $15 to get there a little less stressed.  However, we still had to go THROUGH Kyoto which always kills me.  We got lost a little bit but thanks to Yukino and her new iphone, we made it through managing to bypass all the crap traffic that usually plagues the roads. 

Soon, we were out of the city and up in the mountain roads.  I was really happy to try out the 4WD that our car is blessed with in the snow.  However, the roads were pretty bad and didn't have a nice even layer to have fun on.  I still managed to drive like a boss compared to others on the road.  We soon came out into a valley that I had seen in pictures before-

Just as soon as we had got out of the mountains, back in I took us.  I failed to notice the road closed symbols on my map and tried my best to go on.  Locals thought I was crazy.  Soon, with my car too low (stupid me taking all the "rally" out of my "rally car") I didn't dare trudge on any further. 

I went back to the main thoroughfare which presented me with a driving condition unlike anything I have ever seen.  To combat ice, water is sprayed onto the road.  Makes sense right?  However, this water was shot out like a small fire hose every ten or so feet.  At the side of the car.  For fifty miles.  It was like driving through a car wash. For fifty miles.

After a very wet drive we had arrived to.....not much-

There was a statue-

And, a main road-

With just a few minutes walking one thing was clear.  This place is much better than Wakayama City.  I think anyplace on Earth is better than Wakayama City so my last comment doesn't really carry much weight with it.  To be fair though, Tsuruga did seem to have some really nice restaurants and bars so.

We were starving and usually prefer a small restaurant but ahhh, the joys of having a baby and the problems that come with it.  We decided to go to a nonsmoking food court at the top of a shopping mall.

Had a nice view too.  I have never seen snow and water in such close proximity-

Creepy building #704 of thousands in Japan-

I thought they had forgotten the "T" but Yukino thinks its a plain on the Japanese word for "interesting"-

With the daylight waning we jumped back in the car and drove to the east along the coast.  Taking a wrong turn took us through a tunnel to a massive concrete factory that blew us away-

Above the tunnel on the city side is a nice temple that required some careful footwork but was an otherwise normal and nice place to see-

Crappy picture I know-

Back in town we made reservations for an izakaya next door that was reported as worthwhile.  I wish we could have gone restaurant/bar hopping but ....   Anyway, we were very lucky since we were able to reserve a private room. Their only one.  And, Aki fell asleep for most of the dinner! It was amazing! We haven't had a dinner out together since Aki was born and this was a perfect first one. 

Grilled fish on rice-

One of the more horrid looking fish I have eaten here (notice the white eye ball that some people eat?) but it was incredibly delicious and had a lot of meat to it.  

 We spent way to much on dinner (there was a lot more than pictured) but I assured Yukino it was okay since it was a special occasion.  It was after all.  I figure we will be able to do this once more before we come back to the States for a visit.  For the $120 it was worth it.