10 November 2019
A rare event indeed
Eating pizza in Yamagata
I dont think I have eaten pizza in over 5 years, even though I like it. Tonight that changed.
Generally speaking, I think pizza is the ultimate calorie delivery system, which is great if you want to consume a lot of calories. Its bread, cheese and often salted smoked meats. Delicious. Addictive.
That is the problem. So I just decided to never eat pizza a few years ago. The other thing I never eat is chips or any meal that comes with chips (fries).
Tonight I had no intention of actually eating pizza, I went into an Italian restaurant mindful that I had eaten Japanese food for the last few nights intending to order pasta. However on the menu was a wood fired pizza with lots of fresh tomatoes and no cheese! A healthier pizza perhaps? It was ok, authentic base and sauce. But I dont think I am about to become addicted to pizza.
Thats enough about pizza. Why the hell did I bother typing all that boring stuff out?
Other than that, my main goal tonight was to get my next travel pass that will get me back to Tokyo via Koriyama which is my next stop. This requires my passport. So I headed to the station with my passport and the info on the pass I needed, only to find out the travel agency office that issues passes shuts at 5pm. That is much earlier than anything else ever shuts in Japan! I will have to make a special trip down there tomorrow afternoon.
And actually, quite a lot of Yamagata was shut tonight, Sunday night. Although even though a lot of places were shut, it was still more open and busy than Niigata.
Here is Yamagata station. It is not huge but it has a Shinkansen and 3 different local lines.
This is the inside of that big government building I photographed yesterday. There are a few restaurants and a cinema. I think there might also be an observation deck, perhaps I shall investigate tomorrow.
What is this! A train with an Onsen / hot spring / whatever ON THE TRAIN.
The station has a tunnel under it. It is not very popular as there are no escalators like there are to the overpass.
Now for a couple of exterior shots of little restaurants that were open on a Sunday night where I did not eat because it was mainly ramen (which I had too much of lately) or meat on sticks (which I dont consider a meal).
Many places that were open only seem to have a 'party plan' menu which involves a huge amount of food and all the beer you can drink in x hours.
The back alleys were dark and quiet.
And here is my pizza, sans cheese, but with olives capers and tomatoes. I dont eat much meat because not eating meat offsets the carbon from my half way around the world flights. Thats how offsetting works isnt it?