Starting to get a little chilly in Japan.

Today the high was 62, and for the first time, it felt a little chilly in Japan. Still, tomorrow the high is 69, so it's all good.

Had a three day weekend this weekend, which was nice. I learned that there's a word for such weekends. They are called renkyuu. I wish all weekends were renkyuu weekends. So, Friday, I was thinking about going to Tokyo and hanging out, but decided to be cheap and stay in Tsuchiura. Manami came in to town (surprise surprise, right?) and I told her I wanted to go to a restaurant that I'd be too intimidated to go into by myself. She was cool with this idea, so we found a place pretty near my house and it has now become one of my all-time favorite restaurants in Japan.

Basically, this place was a teppanyaki restaurant. But when in Japan, "teppanyaki" doesn't imply a benihana- or JMK Nippon-style restaurant. Instead, these are places where you sit and there's a grill on your table and you do the work yourself. This restaurant, called Aoi ("blue" or "green"), was delicious, cheap, and offered HUGE portions. We actually ended up going there 2 nights in a row, because it's close to my house and it rained all day Saturday. It was cool too, very "Japanese" feeling, as you have to take off your shoes before sitting at the table, and your feet hang down into a pit. Check out the pictures.

The daily special was a garlic okonomiyaki. Could this have been more perfect? So they bring you a bowl that you mix and then pour out like so: (by the way- all pictures on this blog are clickable and enlargeable)



Then, you let it simmer, add bacon (yum) and fry up an egg. Then you flip it, and it looks like this:



Manami insisted on being in a picture, and this one shows how the grill is right at your table:



The massive okonomiyaki concoction costed all of $6.50 or so. We also ordered some other stuff, including scallops and butter.




Yum, delicious, so good. I could go on about this place, but I think we all get the point.

Sunday, I took it easy. I was actually a little bored. However, on Friday, Maatsura-sensei said I could take the isshobin of sake that had been sitting in the teacher's office. What's an isshobin you say? It's a bottle that equals around 1.8 Liters. So, I took a hot bath and drank hot sake, then passed out. It was nice.

I couldn't even dent the sumabitch.



Today, I went to Tokyo, met up with Manami, and we ate at MoMo Paradise (the all-you-can-eat sukiyaki/shabu-shabu place). I got fat. Then we walked around for a while. Now i'm tired.

That's all folks!!

Mars Volta in 9 days. Mustique in 39.