Saturday I met up with Kuniko in Motomachi after she finished up at work, and together we took a train trip to visit Tomoko and her husband Masaki. They live past Osaka – we took another JR train line from Umeda to get there. Once we arrived Tomoko met us at the station and took us to their home.
They live just a few minutes walk from the station in a really nice apartment complex. The house was decorated really well and felt very comfortable inside. We sat around their table in the living room and they were nice enough to get some bottles of wine to enjoy with dinner. They were really good wines – a French Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon. We listened to some music by “Joe” – his third album, called (aptly enough) “My Name is Joe”. It sounded pretty good – I’d never heard him before.
While we talked and enjoyed our drinks, Tomoko and Masaki went back and forth between cooking dinner and entertaining us. The first course was green vegetables and a soft tofu film wrapped up like a little package together in a warm dashi broth. After Tomoko impressed us with that she started frying up kushikatsu – mushrooms, pork, onions, leeks, and even Camembert cheese. The kushikatsu really hit the spot – but she wasn’t finished yet. The main course was sushi – roll your own sushi.
We had a big wooden rice bowl in front of us filled with sushi rice. We put a layer of rice on a piece of nori, and then laid some fish inside. After that, it was up to you what ingredients you put in. They had ikura, egg, cucumber, and even mayo-mentai. We ate lots of sushi – it is my favorite Japanese food, but I’ve never had sushi like this before. It was a very social experience, talking and drinking while rolling up your own sushi rolls.
Tomoko and Masaki really put together a great meal. I hope that we can see a little more of them in the future. We’re going to try to meet up for hamburgers at Star Child’s in Kobe sometime soon. They’re both thinking about studying English a little more, and so maybe I can help them a little with that.
Not only is Tomoko very talented in the kitchen, but she played some piano for us (they have a small piano in their living room). She was really good – I was impressed. She played a song for us and it was beautiful. I hope we get a chance to hear her play again.
Finally the end of the night came and after drinking all three of the bottles of wine (mainly just Kuniko and I… we’re a couple of alcoholics!) and some KitKats for dessert we headed back to the station. Masaki and Tomoko walked us over there, and we caught a train headed the right way. It was really nice to spend time with them and it was definitely the highlight of our weekend.
