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junpu

Weekend Menu: Lazy Sushi, Crab and Hayashi Rice

  • Feb 28, 2010
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Turned out to be a fairly good weekend around here. Friday night we got lazy and ended up buying supermarket sushi and croquettes, and spent the evening drinking cocktails and wine. We were both pretty bushed from a full work week.

Saturday Kuniko had to go off to work, and then a party for her students and the “Rotarians” – the bigwigs that help sponsor all the exchange students that Kuniko is in charge of at her school. That meant that I was free for the day, and I spent most of it doing laundry, catching up on my reality TV shows, and cleaning house.

In the evening I had planned to go hit a yakitori and work on my Japanese conversation skills while eating yummy grilled meat, but unfortunately both of the yakitori restaurants that I visit in town were packed with not even one seat available. As a backup I went over to Junpu for dinner. This is the place that served deer meat a couple of weeks ago, and this time around they had crab on the menu. I ordered snow crab, and because they like me I got the entire crab – I guess they weren’t expecting any more crab purchasing customers that night or they were trying to get rid of it. It was a big score for me – an entire crab for about $8 US. Thanks, Junpu!

While I was there Rob came by, killing time before a dating party that he was attending. Rob works at the kid’s English school down the road, and he is also from California. He’s a nice guy and we had a good chat while he killed time waiting for a friend to take him to the party. Not sure about the outcome of that – I’ll have to inquire next time.

After dinner I headed home full of crab and beer, and listened to music way too loudly until I got a message from Kuniko saying that she would be catching a train soon. I met her at the station and we walked home together after one in the morning, and then got home and had another round of cocktails – good times.

Luckily Sunday was much more low key. We did our Japanese taxes during the day, got some shopping done, and then went over to have dinner at Kuniko’s parents house. We had lots of food (as usual) there, sandwiches, hayashi rice, and salads along with plenty of sake from a 1.5 liter bottle that Kuniko’s dad was pouring from. We watched endless updates about the tsunami warning, and saw some of the flooding that happened in Japan, but apparently it wasn’t so bad, and everything turned out to be OK. The footage from Chile was much more scary, and we were counting our blessings that everything was fine here.

On our way home we stopped for a few groceries for the week, and then headed home. Now I’m just writing up this journal entry and getting ready for bed. Work should be fun this week – there are a lot of students preparing to go overseas, so I’ll need to help them get ready for their business trips.

Deer Meat, Fake Underwear and Two Watches

  • Feb 15, 2010
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On Saturday I spent the entire day at home puttering around the house. The plan was to take care of my errands and do some baking, and I got both done pretty early on, so I had time to catch up on Lost and Survivor. The baking was this recipe, and it turned out quite well. I made two pies, cherry and peach, and of the two the peach was better. The cherry still needed a little more sugar, and there was altogether too much juice in both, but pretty good for a first try.

Saturday evening I went over to Junpu, which is the teppanyaki place next to Red Spanky that is owned by the same lady (Miyuki). She was working over at Junpu, and there were enough customers to keep her and the three part time workers busy. I had garlic Caesar salad, Thailand-style shrimp and chile saute, and some edamame beans to go with my beer. I was just about finished with dinner and saw that she had deer meat on the menu, which is pretty unusual in Japan. Turns out a friend of hers is a hunter and gave her about half a deer to sell at the restaurant. I ordered some served in a yakiniku style, and it was really good. It has been a long time since I’ve eaten deer.

I chatted for a while with Miyuki and we talked about business this days (February and March are the slowest of the year for her stores) and about the other foreigners in the neighborhood. She really enjoys talking with the two workers over at a local kids English school, and she had some interesting insights into the contrast of their behavior. One likes to study Japanese, and the other is more interested in the dirty words.

After Junpu I headed over to Red Spanky for some drinks while I waited for Kuniko to get back. The gang was all there, and we talked about their recent trip to Vietnam. They even brought back some omiyage for me – a tin of salted pork and some fake Calvin Klein underwear. Excellent choice of omiyage – I love that kind of stuff. Finally after a few hours of drinking at Red Spanky, Kuniko showed up (a little drunk) and we walked home (a little drunk) together. Good times.

Sunday was Valentine’s Day, and that meant sleeping in, doing just about nothing, and eating too much. We did take a two hour hike to the grocery store way north of here, and perhaps that would offset some of the calories taken in later. Kuniko made hamburg for me, topped with cheese cut into the shape of hearts, and served with veggies on the side (also cut into heart shapes). After dinner she presented me with some dark chocolates, and not one but two wristwatches. Turns out she wasn’t sure which one to get so she got both, and now I have a cool watch for casual and for work. Monday I’ll go in to Daimaru in Kobe and get it adjusted to my size.

We had a very good Valentine’s Day, and I couldn’t resist urging Kuniko to open her birthday present on Sunday. I got her a new Nintendo DS, and a new game that she had been craving – Dragon’s Quest VI. Since we had so much free time on Sunday it was give her something fun to do. I think it was a big hit – hopefully she’ll continue to enjoy it.