After work yesterday I met up with Yoshi for some dinner and drinks in Tarumi. I’m not a frequent visitor to Tarumi, but since Yoshi lives nearby he is always happy to show me around. We started at a small izakaya and enjoyed a couple of interesting dishes – a mix of yakitori, salad, and a strange dish with small pieces of toast, thinly sliced onions and thick slices of bacon. It was kind of like make-your-own BLT without the tomato. Everything went with the cold beer we were drinking, and the atmosphere was “traditional Japanese izakaya” which is hard to explain but a pretty good environment for drinking.
While eating Yoshi and I talked about his upcoming trip next week to Cambodia and Vietnam, and my trip next month to India. He’s very excited about his trip, and just a little nervous. I warned him not to drink the water, wash the fruit with your own bottled water before eating it, and try to spend some time each day doing nothing but relaxing. Sometimes vacations can get overcrowded with activities, and they end up seeming like work. He’s going with some coworkers who are pretty cool, so I’m sure they’ll have a good time.
Afterwards we figured we had another drink or two in us, so he took us to a kushi bar in western Tarumi that specialized in wine. With a couple of glasses of wine we had grilled zucchini, avocado, erengi mushrooms, and some sliced cheese. Although it was a lot of food it was fun to check out a new place and try some new wines. Too bad all this excitement was happening on a school night.
When I got home poor Kuniko was already conked out in bed – she had a very exhausting seminar – so we had to wait to catch up until this morning. We’ll go out to dinner tonight, though – it’ll give us another chance to bring each other up to speed on what we’ve been doing. Today is the last day of work for the next nine days – that’s always good news.
