Aomori Art Museum and Tony Roma's

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A few weekends ago, Ryan and I took a short road trip to Aomori City.

Along the way we pass this sign and I always want to stop for a picture.  This time we were in luck since we had a red light and Ryan was driving.  It's a male and female statue on top of the town welcome sign.  I think it's cool.

Another major activity for us here is looking for various Kit Kats.  If you don't know, Kit Kats are super popular in Japan (click HERE to find out why), and there are all kinds of flavors around.  Anytime we go into a convenience or grocery store, we stop to look and see what kinds they have.  Here we found green tea and vanilla in the big size bars.

Believe it or not, there was actually still a lot of snow on the sides of the road and ground (in the woods/mountains) that hadn't yet melted, and it had been snowing as recently as the week before, anyway, so needless to say, lots of snow, and of course I took pictures.

It's hard to see, but there is a stream down there with a nice, swift current.  I guess that is where all the melting snow goes.

It's very pretty here, so I was glad to be in the passenger seat and able to take pictures.

Another shot with the stream.

Almost to Aomori (ok, not almost, but we are getting there).

One of the highlights of the drive is going through some big mountains in tunnels.

It looks like you drive right into the mountain.  There is one tunnel that just keeps going and going.  I can't remember how long it is, but it is probably the longest tunnel I have driven through.

Then we arrived at our destination.  We decided to check out the Aomori Museum of Art.

Some seriously interesting displays inside.  This one actually creeped us out a little bit.

Notice anything not so kid friendly in this "kids" room?  I have no idea why, but the Japanese love using this word (look closely if you don't know what word I am referring to).

Here is what may be the main attraction at the museum.  I always see this picture when I am looking at things about this museum, so I know it is an important and well known piece.  Curious how big this is?

Looking at it with me in the picture gives you a pretty good idea of the size of this sculpture.  This dog even has a bowl with it.

After the museum, we headed into Aomori city, parked the car and walked around.  Here are some of the things we found.

Love this guy!

We even walked over to the Bay.

Only in Japan!  Gotta love it!

Oh, and oddly, as for things to find in Japan, look where we went for lunch:

That's right, there is a Tony Roma's in a hotel in Aomori, and it is popular with Americans.  We went for lunch, just to see if it lived up to it's hype (it didn't BTW).

We started with spinach and artichoke dip.

I had bread served with my meal.

Ryan had a hamburger.

I had shrimp skewers, and actually these were really good.  This, for me, was the highlight of the meal. Ryan said his burger was fair, and the dip was not very good at all (way too greasy, but I guess some people like that).

That was it for Aomori, but I wanted to share a few more pictures I have.  As you may know, I am a little behind with posting, and with my upcoming trip, I want to have most of these pictures posted and shared.

This is a restaurant just off the base.  Mexican in Japan!  We decided to give it a try before seeing a play on base.

We started with homemade chips and salsa.

Ryan had a combo platter.

I had shrimp tacos.

The verdict: AMAZING!  Maybe we just haven't had Mexican in a while, but this was definitely up there with some of the food we ate in Las Vegas.  I am not kidding.  We were extremely surprised.  We have been back once since then and I am headed there again this week for dinner with a friend.

Last up...more Kit Kat!  These are cookies and cream bite size pieces that Ryan brought back from Okinawa.

Don't forget, there are a few more days on my giveaway (link at the top of this post).  Make sure to enter!

QUESTIONS:  Have you ever tried any unusual Kit Kat flavors?  Have you ever been disappointed with a restaurant meal (didn't live up to the hype)?  Have you ever been extremely surprised by a restaurant meal?