Good Times, Slow Times

Last weekend was pretty good – a couple of fun events combined with plenty of downtime to relax and recharge for the week. Friday night Yoshi and I went to Sannomiya, and had some pretty good pizza at R. Valentino. The place had a good atmosphere, and the pizza was delicious (although they were a little stingy with the basil). After pizza we grabbed a beer at Brugge, hiked all the way up the hill to try the Shimogawa wine bar (but we were turned away because they were packed), and then back down the hill to try a wine bar run by the guy who used to work at Reset.

The wine bar was called DarWine, and as usual the master had a lot of nice stuff in there. The wine cellar was transparent and in the room, so it was easy to look through and find something you liked. It also had a full menu, so you could have more than just a snack in there. Yoshi and I had a couple of glasses of Au Bon Climat Oregon Pinot Noir, and also a French Bordeaux that wasn’t quite as good but certainly better than anything I had laying around at home. Finally we had one last cocktail at New York, and then headed back. It was a good night to blow off some steam.

Saturday night we went over to Fukumi-san’s place for dinner, and had kind of a bon voyage party for Yuuki, who will go to Italy for several months to attend a cooking school. He was pretty excited about it, but he seemed a little uncomfortable about being the center of attention. He’s a shy guy, after all.

Dinner there was excellent – starting with some killer mushroom and walnut pate, garlic bread, clam pasta, stewed beef and vegetables, and a chicken saute that really hit the spot. They can really cook over there – yum. We brought three bottles of wine, and we hit those pretty hard. Fukumi-san all served two bottles of Eiswine between the bottles of red, so my sugar levels were up and down during the night. Sweet wine is really popular here in Japan.

We cut out early because Kuniko had to work the next day (Sunday!), but the Yamaji-san’s were still going strong when we left. Sunday I spent the day playing video games, shopping for essentials, reading and staying out of the rain. In keeping with the relaxed theme of the day, we had just some salad and avocado on toast for dinner and retired early.

Although last week was full of parties and meet-ups, this week is nearly the exact opposite. I have no events all week, and so I’ll be home on time and ready to cook some interesting meals. Tonight we’ll have a couple of avocados (and I want to grill one of them) along with some leftover salad – but after that the menu is open.


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