We departed Hiroshima right on schedule and I thanked my lucky stars that our lovely travel agent had booked a hotel immediately adjacent to the shinkansen station as it was a very early start and with a train change to make along the way, we were determined to meet up with our coach bus in Himeji on time. Everything went smoothly once again (yay, team!!) and we were finally aboard a bus bound for Izushi, an ancient castle town famous for the Izushi Soba noodle. It was a fairly long ride and many of us napped after the rushed start to the day. Upon arrival in Izushi we were met by the staff of Hyogo International Association, who took us to an Izushi family restaurant where the owner had an area set up to teach us all how to make soba. We all got in it up to our elbows and concentrated hard on making the perfect shape and texture. I can tell you it wasn't nearly as easy as it looked and required quite a bit of muscle to knead the dough! Once the noodles were all completed we then moved on to another restaurant where we had our own noodles cooked as well as the restaurant's own home product. I would like to say that I couldn't tell the difference between the two, but I suspect the Japanese in our group may not quite agree. The restaurant policy is to award a prize to the person, who eats the most plates of soba, and on this occasion the award goes to.....Shingo!! Who else?? :) I think he had close to 30 plates. Actually, Yuki came pretty close, but I am afraid the rest of us put in a pretty poor effort. With full tummies we then took a guided walk around the beautiful town and admired the sheer enormity of the famous clock tower.
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