Mellow July

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SMS in the Class B Finals

 SMS and I have had some pretty mellow weekends lately, which has been really nice.  Well, I should say that my weekends have been pretty mellow.  SMS has been busy.  Two weekends ago he had two photo shoots that took up his whole day.  Last Sunday, he competed in a bouldering competition at a local gym.  Gamba!  He was subarashi and did really well.  I was really proud of him and I was his #1 fan.

Gamba!

That evening, we hung out with two of our San Diego friends in Yokohama.  We ate at a Scandinavian place that I'd like to go back to and order the variety plate and several smoorebrods.  Maybe I should just learn how to make them- I think of several lunches I had in Denmark with very fond memories, especially at Ida Davidsen and the restaurant at Kronborg Castle.  Yum, yum, yum!  We ended up having a very leisurely dinner since we were trying to wait out a rainstorm.  It was a great night, even if we didn't get a chance to see the Yokohama fireworks.

Backtracking to Saturday, we went to Kamiooka and browsed through a camera store, had very expensive tea (oops, but still, it was just tea so it wasn't too bad) and then went to a mid-afternoon party at one of the anesthesiologist's house.  It was a really fun get-together and we ended up staying 4 hours.  Don't worry, other people did too!  It was great company and a lot of good conversation.  By the end, SMS and I were ready to leave but as SMS said, "Not overly ready to leave."

We've also had some pretty good local meals.  Sitar is becoming our go-to Indian restaurant.  It's about half-way between our place and the train station.  The dal is delicious- very savory and rich without being overly creamy.  The curries are really tasty- we've had the dal mutton, sag paneer, butter chicken and chicken keema.  We talk to the waiter and cook in a nice Jinglish mixture and we (unfortunately for their business) tend to have the place to ourselves.   The spice intensity can heat up quickly but "normal" seems to be working out for us lately.

Two mediums make a large!

SMS and I finally made it to Amiyaki-Tei Yakiniku together.  I had been twice before, but together, we had only been to Kalbi House.  Amiyaki is a little cheaper and delicious.  We had great meat, fried veggies and the best beer deal in Japan.  We each ordered a large and the woman comes to our table with four large glasses.  Well, they were actually "mediums" and according to her, "Two mediums, one large!"  They were out of large mugs so I think the math worked out in our favor.

Delicious Soup

Nope, nope, nope.

We also made it back to Hamakura, which has significantly upped the ante on their "Aigo no menu."  There are beautiful pictures and multiple pages.  I ordered "the popular set" which consisted of a whole fish (dead) arched on the plate surrounded by sashimi and sushi from that very same fish.  Once I was done, the owner took the fish away and 10 minutes later, came back with the fish chopped up in several pieces and stewed in miso broth.  Yum!  I most definitely did not eat the eyeballs, but almost everything else was fair game.

Part of Bird's Nest beautiful kitchen

Finally, today we had the set lunch at the "Bird's Nest Restaurant." I had heard a lot about it from the XO's wife and I've really wanted to try it.  Well, while we were on our way to Pepper Lunch, we decided to walk one more block and try it out.  For Y800, we had a delicious set lunch with rich miso soup, tuna bowl for SMS and fried fish for me (slight mistake, I didn't read closely enough but it was good) and unlimited oolong tea.  I definitely want to go back, not just for the awesome lunch but to also try the set course dinner.