On Saturday night Kuniko and I met for yakiniku (grilled meat) in Sannomiya, at a restaurant recommended by one of her coworkers. I hadn’t had yakiniku in months, so I was very much looking forward to it. The restaurant was a very small place, and we sat at the counter on the bottom floor of the three story restaurant. There were four “cooks” lined up behind the counter facing us, and as customers ordered the meat they cut the slices of raw meat and put them on a serving dish, and then the dish was delivered to us by one of the other restaurant workers.
The meat was good, but some of the cuts were pretty fatty. In Japan fat = quality, and some were so fatty I had to look hard to find the red meat. But in the end the flavor was very nice, and we also had some bibinba, a couple of giant shrimp, and plenty of kimchee and beer to go with it.
We did a little shopping at the Sogo department store and found a couple of good wines for sale – a Ridge Lytton Springs Zinfandel and a Bogle Old Vines Zinfandel. We were able to taste them, and we ended up buying a bottle each. The price was higher than what I would pay in California, but I guess that is the penalty of living on the other side of the ocean. And Kuniko is a big Zin fan.
Not wanting to call it a night after that we dropped by Hola Achaho and had a couple of glasses of wine before catching the train home. The crew there looked the same as ever – working hard and making great food.
Sunday we slept in as much as we could and then I headed to Higashi Kakogawa to help out Nozaki sensei with her annual Halloween Party. This year the party was a little bigger, and she had some help from two other foreigners, Craig and Kerry. Craig is living in Japan and has been married to his Japanese wife Yukiko for one year. Kerry has been living in Japan with her Japanese husband for about twenty years. After we finished the party Nozaki sensei invited us over to her house for dinner. Kuniko met us there, and we sat around and ate some delicious foods and recapped the night. It was interesting to hear Craig and Kerry talking about their life in Japan, although Yukiko was a little quiet. Nozaki sensei once again put on a good show and we had a great time.
Now it is back to work for us. The heavy rain this weekend finally let up this morning, and we should be able to stay dry going to and from work this week. There is a rare mid-week holiday on Wednesday for both of us, so we’ll take the chance to make an early morning run to Costco. It will be an expensive trip – tortillas, cheese, wine, you name it.
