Izakaya, summer festival, pearls, oh my!

On Friday night, a group of old dept coordinators took me out for dinner. What better way to finish off a work week than hitting up an Izakaya.  Izakaya is a term for what I would consider a Japanese bar but with good food, usually served tapas style. See for yourself:

The most interesting dish - Duck meat, yakiniku style!

After some laughs, a few beers, and even some shochu (yes, I actually drank it all!), I walked my tomato-red-faced-self to the train station.

I started off my Saturday morning with an impossibly slow 3 mile run. Each run keeps getting harder and harder, and Im getting more and more frustrated. Maybe I will wait and continue my pursuit for fitness in the fall...

As a pick-me-upper afterwards, the hubs and I headed back to our fav (still!) ramen place, Ippudo. This time I went with their specialty "Akamaru":

The indescribable broth is just too delicious not to lick the bowl clean. And their slices of meat are so perfectly smoked!

We then met up with a visiting coworker to explore the city of Nagoya by foot. We randomly stumbled upon a summer festival at a local shrine. $10 for food, beer, games, and good prayers? Yes please!

- Walk thru the jumbo wreath for good summer health.

- What better dessert is there on a hot summer day than shaved ice?

- A summer festival cannot be complete without a game of ball scooping? Watch out, kiddos!

 

And finally, we wrapped up the evening by heading to Craftbeer Keg, one of the few bars in Japan that serve craft beer, to meet up with a handful of other expats. I had me some delicious lemonade beer - yummers.

And to wrap up the weekend, after picking up our *very first* visitors from Nagoya station, we decided to take them to Mie-prefecture, home of the world famous Mikimoto pearls.

Trained female divers ready to pick out the oysters in their "state-of-the-art" diving uniform

And then it was our turn...we got this!

After a nightmare of a drive home (traffic in Japan is horrific!) on our first road trip, we quickly went to bed for some zzz's as we started yet another *hot* work week.  What better way to finish off a Manic Monday than with a trip to our local izakaya, Homare, for some dinner and their puuuuuudin' w/ our guests of honors! 

Yeah yeah, I said I wouldn't repeat restaurants, but I can't help it...you just have to go back to the delish ones!