Car Treats

Like an excited kid I yell out look it's Mt Fuji ... After about 2 hours of driving we start to see glimpse of the majestic Mountain, it so cool to see and so huge standing high above the rest of the mountains.

Ken says its a great view from here but wait till we get to the country house as the view from there is better. 

We pull over for a doggie stop and some refreshments, what's a car trip without goodies I say... but wait...  Hiroko wants to treat us to a special road trip treat but Japanese style of course, well after all we are now in the so called sticks and the road house has a very Japanese feel, a bit like a big supermarket but they only sell treats Hmmmm they must get a lot of passing traffic as this place it's fairly big and stuck out in the middle of nowhere.

Japanese love little cuties stuff and sweet and sour treats and this place was full of it you feel like you are 8, its all so kiddish there food culture is so refined but the treats are so childlike.

But beware of anything that looks too colourfull and pretty in very expensive decorative boxes as you may well be shocked. These are made from red beans and look pretty and sweet but hmmmm are more like a gluey paste with no sweetness and taste of beans. Bit disappointing considering how beautiful they look, perhaps an acquired taste. Oh and the other sweet to beware of is sweets that taste like salt or the strongest lemon flavour that sucks every last drop of moisture from your mouth. 

So Hiroko assure us that she has a western sweet tooth so it will be OK.

So its back into the car and our treat is revealed, " Pokos " it is a small chocolate coated vanilla ice cream .... yep you may ask ... what's different or special about that, well the taste firstly it was so creamy, they are about the size of a marshmallow and come in a tray like a box of chocolates and with no stick... Well hmmmm how do we eat them ... at the end of the box is several little plastic prongs that you push into the top of them, so it was like eating a box of creamy chocolate coated milky frozen treats on a little prongs and was all so delicate and oh so beautifully Japanese.