Out For Meat

This evening Kuniko and I went over to visit her parents in Kakogawa. Her father had offered to buy us yakiniku for dinner. He wanted to chat with us about our future plans, get an idea about what we are planning for our wedding, and eat lots of meat with us. Kuniko told him that I’m a big beef eater, so he was excited about this shared interest.

We got there and relaxed, and her dad spent some time talking about various issues with Kuniko. I struggled to catch what was going on, but I was able to pick up the gist of the conversations, so I wasn’t totally lost. We talked about meeting my family when they come over for the wedding, and there were some interesting cultural differences going on there.

We went to one of the family’s favorite restaurants, and ordered up a variety of meat to cook up, along with some Korean rice and some side dishes. We had rib meat, regular beef, liver, and tongue. Kuniko ordered up something called “yuke”, which turned out to be really good. It was just raw ground beef with spices mixed in, with a raw egg yolk on top. You mix it up and eat. Kuniko’s folks seemed a little alarmed that we actually ate it.

The conversation was all over the place, and I could tell that her dad had some concerns about the immediate future – where Kuniko will live, what her new job will think of her situation, etc. Her dad was also really excited to hear about the different kinds of beef available in America. It sounds like he’d really like to go and eat his way through California. Beef here in Japan can be expensive, so my tales of cheap and plentiful beef really got him amped up.

After dinner he picked up the tab, and we went back to their place to watch some TV and have some tea and coffee. Around nine o’clock Kuniko drove me home. She has to work tomorrow, so she’ll be staying at her folks place tonight and then heading back to Osaka.

Tomorrow I’m planning on taking it easy and studying – I’m doing a little planning for the trip next month, and doing some financial planning as well. I need to make sure I have some money in America when I get there. I guess I can’t walk around with loads of cash like I do in Japan. At any given time I have between $100 and $500 worth of yen in my wallet when I walk around. Back in the states I was dependent on my bank’s check card, so I carried almost nothing. Time to get back in the habit of traveling light.


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