Vegetarian Yuko w/ a splash of Cosplay

Thoughts of tofu entrees have been dancing through my head ever since a failed attempt at taking the V-2 (Vegetarian Visitor) to the famous tofu restaurant, Umenohana, last Friday.  I finally had the opportunity to hit it up last night, and the wait was well worth it!

As the sliding doors to our prviate room were opened, we were awaited by this:

Some stretchy tofu (sorry for my lack of adjectives) and what we later realized was perhaps raw chicken?? 

Then followed by this concoction:

What is that, you ask?  Well its a tofu pusher, to eat the tofu like noodles!  Watch as the hubs demonstrates:

They did a phenominal job with one of my fav dishes - chawanmushi.  Chawanmushi is an egg custard that has varying ingredients.  This version had shrimp, seaweed, shiitake, and my personal fav - mochi :)

(oh yeah, and the other bonito tataki dish was good too, but def overshadowed)

"Best chawanmushi EVER!!"

This was followed by some beef tongue and eggplant.  I swear it tasted better than it sounds!

Skewers of tofu that tasted almost like mochi, topped w/ some miso-based sauce.  Yummo!

The course was finished off by an unagi dish, pickled veggies, and yuba (tofu skin, a delicacy here in Japan) soup:

Then finally dessert, the most potent green tea ice cream I've had yet:

I'd say this trip to Umenohana was a success indeed!

Yesterday my coworker gave me these:

Fresh Japanese eggplant and Japanese cucumber!  These would cost a handful of dollar bills at Whole Foods back home

And today, after I got home from my horrific morning 3-mile run in 96F weather, the hubs greeted me with this:

Omelette w/ fresh eggplants, kara-age, and ooey gooey cheese

We then headed to our very first hair appointment here in Japan - a couple's appointment, actually!  I didn't ask for it, but ahh well:

Our own "room" w/ a chandelier?  Psssht-yeah!

Afterwards, we headed to Hoshigaoka Terrace to try Nana's Green Tea - a restaurant that serves green tea in any shape and form!

Stuffing my face w/ a green tea parfait while skyping w/ the ex-roomie?  Can't get any better than this!

After we filled our bellies with goodness (ok fine.  Just me, the hubs only got some lame green tea latte), we headed to Osu Kannon to watch the World Cosplay Championships!  That's right, people from around the WORLD came to Nagoya, dressed to impress, in their favorite anime character.  This pic doesnt illustrate the craziness:

Keep in mind it was 96F outside, and look what these die-hard anime people are wearing!

Ahhhh, Japan.  Always full of quirky surprises.

Lemonade?

The hubs brought me home this "souvenir" from his first business trip here in Japan:

Curry flavored Ramune

It smelled like curry.  It even tasted like curry.  Weirdness.

So, what is Ramune, you ask?  Its a drink I usually associate to my childhood summers in Japan. Its a fizzy lemon-y drink that has a unique bottle - curvy glass with a marble inside.  What I didn't know until today was that the drink name actually came from phonetically (mis)spelling the word "lemonade."  Ha!  Wikipedia comes to the rescue, yet again...

Mount Fuji? Been there, done that!

With the strong desire to get away from this treacherous heat this past weekend (there's been 50+ deaths related to this weather, according to Zoom-In Japan!), we decided to conquer Mount Fuji, the highest point in Japan.  It *must* be cooler at ~4000 meters high, right??

After a long bus ride to Yamanashi prefecture, we arrived at the 5th station on Mt Fuji to start our trek up to the summit.  They boys got ready w/ some of this:

What better way to kick-off the start than w/ a tall glass of cold beer?

Here's a "before" picture that we made sure to take while we were all smiles and full of eagerness:

Look how happy we looked in the beginning!  This didn't last long.

This is where we spent 7600yen to crash for 3.5hrs:

Literally a slab of wood w/ sleeping bags right next to another.  Prob 40+ people in one room.  That's right.

This is why we got up at midnight to climb to the summit to see - the famous sunrise atop Mt Fuji:

Simply gorgeous.

Truth be told, we didn't actually make it to the top in time for the sunrise at 4:30am.  With 300 meters to go, the line of climbers was at a halt.  So, we plopped a seat and viewed the beautiful mix of colors from just below the summit, but personally I think it probably looked just as good :)

With a picture of the sunrise safely taken, we restarted our very slow trek to the top.  Here's Nancy near the finish.  Almost.  Done!!

Omigosh we finally made it!!

Can you tell I got my wish for cold weather?  I was freezing my tooshie off!

To warm up our bodies, we ordered some hot miso ramen:

I have never been so excited to eat some overpriced instant ramen

The hubs and I had to take our token pic together, this time with the crater in the background:

That's me taking a celebratory swig of sake

After a loooong descend back to the 5th station (why does there always have to be a down after an up??), we rewarded ourselves by ordering one of eeeeeverything they had here:

Lured by the smells of yummy goodness. 

Body covered all over in dirt and belly full of random foods I took in throughout our hike.  Satisfied?  Fo sho'! 

Birthday shoutout...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY K-SPECIAL!!

May your day be filled with crazies, doggies, and beeeeer :)

Here's hoping to see u here in the spring!

Pizza in Japan?

Quite possibly the best pizza I've had in awhile...

I know I know, they look like nipples...but those mounds of mashed potatoes topped w/ a dollop of mentaiko - what wikipedia describes as "marinated roe of pollack" - then drizzled w/ Japanese mayo.  Nom nom nom...

This can be yours when you come visit us :)

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!

Yaki-eeeeeverythaang!

Last night the hubs and I met up with a few visitors from our company back home for some diiiinah. 

Where do you take a Japan newbie? A Yakiniku place of course (literal translation - "cook meat," but more commonly known as "Korean bbq"), where you can watch the victim (or victims, in our case) try cooking and eating pieces of mysterious meat:

That's a spread of heart, stomach, and the infamous *hormone* at "Hanabi" in Toyota city.

I've gotta say, I was quite impressed with the newbies' challenging mentality. We ate every last piece of everything...