nacken

For dinner we tried a neighborhood izakaya place. The setup was really sweet. To maximize seating space, one half of the room was divided in 2 floors, neither high enough to stand, but very cozy to sit on the floor and nice space for Julius to crawl around. Unfortunetely this was one of his misbehave nights, to the extent that I grabbed him at some point, ran to the hotel with him, made a bottle, ran back and while he was drinking, we had some quiet time to continue the great food. We had some rare sashimi, some fried pork cube, 3 different kinds of tofu, a potato salad (yes, not very Japanese, but very tasty)

Writing again from the apple store in ginza (holding Julius in one arm, so forgive typos). But here at least a little text rundown of what we have been up to.

2 nights ago we had the great idea that we add some spice to the end of our trip and started some hotel hopping. First we spent a night in Kichijoji where we did some more nice shopping and had lunch at a great place called Negishi. We also found an authentic German bakery and had Bretzel and Laugenhoernchen.

Hotels in Japan are expensive and very small. We found a cheaper (albeit even smaller) hotel in Ginza (how cool to stay just 5 minutes walking distance from the apple store) and had dinner again with Utako and ran into a neighborhood summer festival, where I ended up dancing with Julius among all nice-traditionaly dressed up people. We even got free beer and popcorn!

I have tons of pictures of all the above and will post those once I get the chance, which I guess will be when we are back in Fiji, which will be in around 48h.

Gosh, the food here is just great !!!

For dinner tonight we met again with Utako and went to a place that specializes on pork. We had shabu shabu, some ‘grill it yourself’ pork slices, very nice eggplant, those tiny fried fish and other nice things. Julius behaved so so, a lot of walking around was involved and people kept smiling at him and he smiled back.

On our way back, just around the corner from our hotel, I suddenly heard music and we went to check it out. And there, on a communal square between big apartment buildings was a crowd of Japanese people, dressed in traditional summer festival garb and danced to traditional Japanese music. Dances I had never seen before (and no, not the Matsuken Samba). All over the place were colorful lanterns and on one side were food and drink stalls.

The atmosphere was great and very friendly and Julius was fascinated. So, after looking at the basics of the steps, I grabbed Julius and joined the crowd. I could not perform all the hand and arm motions carrying the little guy, but the steps I figured out pretty fast. People were wondering what this tall gaijin was doing, but in general there were smiles all around. Thinking back, I think we should have taken video. Ah well.

Too bad that we came pretty much at the end of the party. But the adventage was that the food stalls gave away beer and popcorn for free.

(Click to enlarge)

Last night we went out to Shinjuku to meet with Ritsu’s old school friend Utako and with Dave, an online pal who wrote the spamfilter I am using for this blog, which also got him into the Fiji Times.

Uta-chan had selected a very nice Okinawa style restaurant for us and was even armed with a map and a 30% off coupon. But still we first ran up the wrong stair case and nearly landed in a massage parlour. People in Okinawa seem to be eating a lot of pig (including marinated pig ears, which was actually very tasty) and thanks to the US troops they had also adopted spam into their cuisine.

Afterwards we went to an izakaya place where we had a last round of drinks and some nibbles.

It had been a long time since we had been out together that long and taking the nearly last train from Shinjuku back home was fun.

This is becoming a regular thing on our Japan trips. For one because it is close to our house, but also because the food is always good. We have been there a few times before (here, here, here and here). Few quirks we still have with the place: They charge a 10% service charge, they bring a little something with beer (which in all other places is considered a freebie) and charge 315Y for it, while the menu shows sushi in pairs, servings are only one each, also fairly uncommon, but the amount of uni I had on my extra sushi was very generous.

As you compare this new photo with the older ones … somehow it is apparent that we keep ordering the same. (We also keep being seated at the same 2 tables)

The weather today was very nice, still a bit humid, but blue skies and no rain. And that while we are being passed by a typhoon (well, now downgraded to a tropical storm). Ritsu and I went to Tachikawa for some shopping.

Last Sunday we were just overwhelmed by the crowds and the amount of stuff in Shinjuku, so we opted for an alternative. Right at the JR train station are 2 big department stores and we had lots of fun going through baby stuff sales items. We also found a new suit for Ritsu and I got some music DVDs.

Initially we had planned to eat Chinese, but after checking the displays of the Japanese restaurants at the food level of one of the department stores, we selected a place that offered very nice yakitori and other tasty things. The food was great and the amount of little freebies was very nice.

What can I say, this trip is indeed mainly about getting our fix of Japanese food and have some relaxation time and some extra time for Julius to play with his Japanese family. No other trips or activities are planned … other than catching up with friends and some shopping.

So we continued being lazy today, napped around, did some minor grocery shopping. For lunch we got a mix of premade things from Seiyu: Some sashimi, tempura, a bento box … all very delicious. For all sushi lover and sushi newbies, I have been given this link to a videoclip which gives a very nice introduction to the world of sushi. It is 50 MB, but very worth checking out!

For dinner grandma Keiko made Tonkatsu = battered and fried pork slices, salad, brocolli and beans. Very tasty!

Ritsu went out this morning to get her driver’s license renewed so I had some quality time with Julius to stroll around in Sengawa. Julius enjoyed the attention he received when he was riding high up on my shoulders, to a point that he was waving after girls.

I found a new jinbei in my size (3L here) which is pretty rare AND it was on sale!

For lunch we had some cold soba with lots of interesting toppings and a bento box.

In the afternoon we went to a CD/DVD rental place: Tsutaya. We were mainly looking for some Japanese kids programs for Julius, but did not really find anything. But in the CD section we nurished our new found love for Crazy Ken Band and I rented 4 of their CDs. A kid’s CD we liked we did not rent when we saw a sticker that it is copy protected, will not play on a mac and can thus not be put on an iPod. Funny thing about all that copy protection: this rental place is also selling CDRs and DVDRs

Dinner were home-made gyoza (japanese dumplings) which were really great.