Is craving…

I CAN HAS MOAR?

 

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Part 3 of 3.

Sunday 24th July 2011:

Finally… I am getting up-to-date, and am now blogging about today!

Today I woke up a little later. I was due to meet Maria at 10.30 so had plenty of time. I got dressed, surfed the internet a little, and then texted Maria about where to meet her at the station.

Unfortunately, I completely misunderstood her text, and thought that she meant we were meeting at 10.30pm instead. So after a brief moment of wondering what the hell to do with myself for the next 12 hours, I got a phonecall from her asking where I was. I can’t even work out how I misunderstood the text, but never mind. So I ran down to the station, and met up with Maria and Hiroaki, her boyfriend!

He was absolutely lovely, and I definitely approve of her choice in men 😛

I was a little embarrassed actually, because his mother and him had bought presents for me, and I hadn’t bought them anything in return! I did not realise that there would be gifts, and so I felt completely unprepared. Hiroaki had bought me some Japanese rock CDs because Maria had told him that I like rock music, and his mother had bought me a Japanese decorative plate, and also a Princess Mononoke notepad. I tried to thank Hiroaki in Japanese and accidentally said “Ohayo Gozaimas” instead of “Arigato Gozaimas”. Hilarity ensues. It was embarrassing. Bad start.

We then got the next train and headed to the restaurant to meet his mother. The journey wasn’t too long and we chatted a bit. When we arrived, I was introduced to his mother, and she was absolutely lovely. A really sweet lady. We walked to the restaurant, and she asked me a lot of questions about myself and my time in Japan, via Maria as the interpreter.

The restaurant was amazing. It was a really beautiful, posh Japanese place. Kind of the equivalant of where we used to go for Boxing Day dinner when I was a child… multiplied by 10… on steroids. It was surrounded by stunning gardens, and I suddenly felt horribly underdressed for such a place. We were then escorted through into the main restaurant area. We ordered drinks: A Japanese plum wine, that tasted quite a lot like the damson gin that Pete used to make when I was about 15, but much sweeter. It was delicious. Our food them began to arrive. We ate from a set menu, and Hiroaki’s mother had rung the restaurant ahead to make sure that it only contained fish and no other meats.

The menu consisted of many small courses. First we had a triplet of little appetisers. There was creamed potato with eel and some vegetable; a flavoured tofu cube, and a steamed egg dish. Next came what they called a ‘Jewellery Box’ which was a laquered box consisting of 2 layers. The top layer contained various sashimi including shrimp. I didn’t like the shrimp, but the rest was good. In the lower layer, there was a vegetable fondu selection: Seasonal Japanese vegetables with a thin creamy sauce on top. It was really good.

Next we had another appetiser which was a steamed pudding type dish, with more eel and some vegetables I hadn’t heard of before. After that was tempura. There were 2 vegetables, and 2 types of fish: Maria explained that one was salt water, and the other was freshwater. I only at the one as the other seemed to be whole – bones and head and all, which I couldn’t really stomach.

After this came the ‘main course’ which was a bowl of steamed rice with tiny little boiled fish on the top. It was really good actually, and the fish added a lot of flavour. We ate this with a bowl of miso soup that contained small mushrooms and seaweed, and some pickled vegetables. I don’t really like vinegar, and so I find it a bit difficult eating so many pickles here. Especially the daikon ones, which I don’t really like either. I ate everything anyway though, as the food was lovely quality and I didn’t want to offend.

Finally we had dessert: It was a steamed cream pudding similar to creme caramel, with a sweet sauce. It was really good.

The meal was amazing, and I felt really lucky to have been invited. I really appreciated it, and tried to thank Hiroaki’s mother in Japanese.

After the meal, we went for a look around the gardens surrounding the restaurant. It was really beautiful, and we saw at least 3 weddings taking place simultaneously. We looked at the beautiful koi carp in the pond, and Hiroaki managed to stroke a few. They were as big as dogs… I’ve never seen fish so big; and beautiful colours and patterns.

We had a stroll, and Maria lent me her scarf because I was getting concerned about mosquitoes again. It was pink and clashed horribly with my red dress, and so every time we took a photo, I took it off. I probably looked so vain, but I always look terrible in photos so it would be nice to get a nice one with Maria 🙂

We said goodbye to Hiroaki’s mother at the train station, and then went to a cat cafe. It was the strangest place I have ever been! Maria explained that they are called “Nyafes”… “Nyan-Cafe” because cats in Japan say “Nyan” instead of “Meow”. It was literally a room where you pay for entry, and then get free drinks while you stroke the cats running freely around the cafe. There were around 20 very well behaved cats, just lounging around on the sofas. We hung around there taking photos and playing with the cats for maybe half an hour, but by this point Hiroaki had started to have a bad allergic reaction to the cat hair, and so we had to leave early. His neck began to swell and blister which was a little scary. Maria helped to remove the cat hair from his clothes, and then we went.

It was a really surreal experience, but a lot of fun!

After that, we went to Yebisu Garden Place for a while. We sat in Starbucks to cool down and had Frappuccinos while Hiroaki started to feel a bit better. There was a Hawaiian Festival going on, which was kind of surreal. We then went to the pharmacy, and Maria helped me to buy antihistamines to help with my mosquito bites. I have since taken 2 and nothing has happened, but hopefully by tomorrow they will have had some effect. I can’t get over how uncomfortable this is!

We then went to Krispy Kreme donuts and I bought two: One for this evening, and one for breakfast tomorrow. I ended up eating both when I got home though… they’re just too good!

After that, we headed back to the train station, and came back to Suitengumae. I said goodbye to Maria and Hiroaki at the station and went back to the apartment. I was very tired because it’s been a busy weekend, and so we didn’t go out to dinner.

I have had an awesome day, and am really enjoying my time in Tokyo. I am starting to feel better now after such a bad week and so hopefully things will stay on a high.

Now… time for a bath and then bed. I am so sleepy!

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