After the ferris wheel, jon won me a prize at a carnival game! haha. It was the first time we’d every done that, but it just seemed so appropriate.
Where in the world else will you have the opportunity to throw little balls into a cup of ramen?
… or something like that. Jon and I went on a date night last night, though I don’t think either of us knew it until half way through.
I met him up at the station after work, and we rushed down to the ferris wheel to catch it at sunset.
The ferris wheel is great – it gave us a great vantage of the city as a whole and a view of Mt. Fuji in the distance.
Look for the peak in the distance, between the two towers on the right. That’s Fuji.
Afterward we went off in search of dinner. One of the things that I wanted to do while I was out here was have beef cooked on the hot stones – It’s a Japanese style of cooking (Kobe) beef, that I’d heard about it at shi-shi restaurants in the states.
Below is a picture of the wagyu beef. Wagyu is a type of cow that’s genetically predisposed to make really marbled, fatty meat. It’s…. awesome. You spread some …. oil… on the rock, which came to the table steaming, and then sear it quickly on each side.
We started out the meal with a white salad. Served in a black dish, the white salad was daikon and parsnip with a miso dressing.
..and a couple of different skewers. Shiitake:
..and pork tongue. The tongue skewer was served with this really tasty sauce that (I think) had lemon, sake, garlic and oil:
This was, perhaps, one of the best dining experiences that I’ve had in japan so far. While we’ve eaten out at a lot of cool places, none of them had yet wowed me in a culinary way. The restaurant had a few negatives, (music speaker was blown out and it was a bit too bright. miso soup sucked) it was a really incredible experience. The decor made me think there should have been a piano in the corner and an grizzled, old man with a top hat playing jazz. The had a huge sake list and, choosing blindly, we managed to each pick something that suited us perfect.
Sake is a lot like wine in its different flavour profiles. Either I’m just now starting to experience high enough quality sake (it’s really affordable here!!), or my palate is finally getting accustomed to the differences. Jon’s sake was really full bodied and creamy, finishing with toasted popcorn and butter. Mine was light, acidic and tasted like leafy greens and citrus fruit. We had just stumbled upon the Californian-Chardonnay and New Zealand-Sauvignon Blanc of the sake world.
After dinner, my judgment skewed by too much sake, we bought 4 kinds of dessert and a Yokohama travel coffee cup. All in all, a very good day.
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