On the road! We left this morning for our ski trip to Hakuba. Two hours in we felt peckish and stopped for a bite at a favorite spot: the highway rest stop.   

  The typical American rest stop includes fast food, bad coffee, doughnuts, dodgy souvenirs, and maybe one mediocre sit-down restaurant like Denny’s or Perkins. 

 Japanese rest stops don’t do dodgy anything. Our lunch choices today included ramen ordered from a ticket booth, a sit down restaurant with proper food, and a bakery. Souvenirs and beautifully wrapped food gifts rounded out the selections. Let’s not forget the cleanest bathrooms you’ll ever see–with heated toilet seats, natch.  

We opted for the sit down restaurant and enjoyed ramen, tonkatsu pork, and karaage fried chicken.  

Back on the road!