Gelato in Japan? Sure. Also, bratwurst, crepes, and just about all good things European. Today was a funky day. We are still a little stuck in the drudgery of Babydom... hating the idea of staying at home and doing nothing, but still a little overwhelmed and intimidated by the idea of taking a train trip somewhere. Needless to say, everytime Mike is able to push me out of the house, I end up really enjoying myself. It had probably almost been a year since our family had been to Kamakura, so we made a plan to head to the T-Side Indian Restaurant and then visit the bamboo forest at Hokoku-ji Temple. Well, we forgot the directions to Hokoku-ji. The idea of spending another 5 minutes getting the directions while Sam was screaming his head off was enough for us to just forget it.
Living on base, it's quite a production getting to the JR Train station. It's a good 15-20 minute walk from the front of base. If we were coming from our house, it would be about a 40-50 minute walk (remember we have a 5 year old walking along side us....no speed walking aloud). What we usually do is park up near the front of base and then walk to the station. We all piled into the car, drove to the front of base, then trecked to the station. Just the walk alone took some weight off of our shoulders and I was starting to feel better.
Once at Kamakura Station, I was thrilled to find out that they had FINALLY put in an elevator. No more carrying a baby stroller down those stairs while throngs of salarymen cut us off and glare. While walking down Komachidori, we noticed so many things had changed. So many new shops and cafes. They still had the awesome little Totoro shop though. We made it to T-Side and enjoyed a lunch set of chicken and mutton curry. Joshua doesn't like it, but he had nan and chai tea. Their chai tea tastes more like the milk tea that we can get from the vending machine but it's still a nice experience. About 2 shops before T-Side is a Gelato shop, called Gelateria Il Brigante. I don't think that I had seen a Gelato shop in a long time and I don't think that I've ever seen one in Japan and if I had, the sign would have most certainly been in kanji, katakana or hiragana and I would have passed right by it. We headed up to the window and looked at all of the creamy goodness displayed before us. I ended up ordering Nacciola (Hazelnut) and Crema (Vanilla). We had to order 2 flavors per cup. HEAVEN!! I think I will take the train ride back to Kamakura Station just for the gelato. I have never tasted better gelato in my life. It was so creamy. The Nacciola tasted similar to a Hazelnut truffle filling, but in ice cream form. The shopkeeper was Italian who spoke English and Japanese. Apparently there hadn't been too many Americans frequenting his shop (It was then and there that I determined my mission in life was to blog about his shop. He NEEDS to stay in business or I may consider hiring him to live in our house and make Gelato all day long). The store has been there about a year. We may have brought in some business while standing there. Our family of four (especially our kawaii America-jin baby) tends to do that. As they stare at the gaijin, they notice that we are oooing and ahhing over "Aisu Kurimu" and decide that maybe we are on to something. By the time we left, there was a good line of people waiting for their chance to oooh and ahhh.
We decided to walk off our lunch and Gelato, and headed towards Hachimangu Shrine, where we were lucky enough to catch a wedding in progress. Unfortunately, such is Mike's luck that he didn't bring his camera. One more treat... a candy grape to finish the day.
What a good day. It's been too long.
