Mystery Solved

Well, I think we have figured out that the aquatic mammal we saw in the river was not an otter. I asked some of my students and they said it was probably a nutria. These were farmed for their fur in the early 1900s but then when the fur industry stopped being lucrative the farmers released many of them. The pictures look like what we saw and they are known to be in the area. I guess they are pretty much considered to be pests. It is interesting that they are vegetarians. I thought since they were in the river they were eating fish but actually they only eat plants.
On a different note, I was craving pizza the other night and so we tried out an Italian restaurant about a 10 minute drive from our apartment that the other teachers said was pretty good. It was a Saturday night and it was packed! I usually have apprehensions about Italian food in Japan as it tends to be "Japan-ified" and gross. And this restaurant was a family style chain-looking place, not a good sign. Well, this place was great! The noodles were homemade and the pizza hit the spot!!! One dish looked really interesting. We saw the waiter roll over a cart with a GIANT half wheel of parmesean cheese. It was a bit hollowed on the inside and they started scrapping the inside even more. Then they dumped a whole load of hot noodles inside and mixed it around! What came out was a wonderful cheesy mass of noodles! We might have to get that next time.
It was strange today because Indiana was in the Japanese news all day because of the primary. I kept hearing reference to "In-di-a-na-shu" (shu means state) abd seeing a map of the US with Indiana highlighted!