Alex Quinn's Japan Journal

1/9/2005, Trip to Takasaki, Gunma prefecture to see Jeremy

I made a trip to Gunma prefecture to the city of Takasaki to see my friend Jeremy.  Jeremy and I were classmates in both computer science and Japanese classes at the University of Washington.  We walked around Takasaki, saw a giant Buddhist statue, went inside the statue, went to the top of the tall city building, and took some nice pictures along the way.

City of Takasaki from the top of the city building.

City of Takasaki from the top of the city building.

City of Takasaki from the inside of the top of the Buddhist statue.

Jeremy near a painting inside the Buddhist statue.

Jeremy inside the Buddhist statue.

A painting inside the Buddhist statue.

A temple near the Buddhist statue.

The outside of the Buddhist statue in Takasaki.

Jeremy understands my fascination with interesting Japanese ice cream novelties.  When I was at his apartment, he showed me the strangest ice cream I've ever seen anywhere.  It is called "tamago aisu" or "egg ice cream".  You eat it out of a rubber thing that is essentially a condom.  You bite off the tip and suck the white ice cream out of it.  There's nothing on the packaging that indicates that it is supposed to be crude or sexual, but there's no way to eat it without thinking something along those lines.

Egg ice cream.

Egg ice cream, again.

By the way, as far as I can tell, the word "egg" comes from the shape of the ice cream before you eat it, not from any relation to the ingredients.  But, I could be wrong.

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