First off, I forgot to mention that after poker I saw my first tanuki.
He looks just like the ones in the US... It's kinda funny because the other kids I was with, who I think are thai or filipino, were going off about how this is their first tanuki. Also, I bought some sausages from the grocery since I saw a commercial for them and they were on super sale. I decided to use this chance to try out the fish grill and make some yakisausage. It's kind of a pain since if you don't clean it right after, the grease just stays in there and festers. Kind of a lot of effort to grill some sausages. Also, the sausages weren't that good.
V brought me some presents from Chicago, including a box of Frangos (mint chocolates) and a 6 lb bag of gummi bears. It was nice to have a touch of home with the Frangos, but the gummi bears...I kinda indulged myself a bit. Basically I opened the bag, started eating some, kept eating some, and before I knew it I probably had gone through at least a pound of gummi bears. V has since rationed the gummi bears into week-long portions...
I'm a bad person. We spent the entire week on a terrible sleeping schedule. I successfully watched my first Bears game on Monday morning. This of course means that I stayed up until 8 AM to watch them crush the Eagles (last touchdown doesn't count...). V flew in on Tuesday extremely tired and jet lagged and my hours were also a mess. We've been remarkably unsuccessful in establishing a normal routine...
Regardless, we've been eating our meals on time. On Friday night, out of the blue, V told me that she's going to take me to dinner. She of course kept me in the dark and took me all the way to Takashimaya without telling me what we're eating. I had actually already eaten some random leftovers, so when we ended up at Din Tai Fung I found it totally appropriate. I ordered a bunch of the vegetable dumplings, V got the pork chops and hot and sour soup, and we finished it off with some red bean dumplings.
It was nice to have a taste of "home." For V anyway. Although it was really good and did hit the spot for both of us, it's significantly less delicious than the real thing; especially the suanlatang. I don't think we'll go back since we have plans to be in Taipei in January and February. You never know.
I was definitely wrong about Christmas in Tokyo. It is infinitely more obnoxious and in your face in the US. That being said, Shinjuku Southern Terrace went all out on Christmas Lights. Guys, bring your dates here because they will instantly shift into "romance mode." Well after seeing this, I'm sure a lot of the Tokyo girls we know will come anyway.
This was kind of a weird weekend for me since usually I have Friday to Monday off. However, this time around I had a group meeting on Friday and a company info session on Saturday. That didn't stop us from getting around to something that's been on our mind since Khai was here. Yep it was time to give Sushi Dai another visit.
Actually, another major reason we went is because it's strawberry season now in Japan and although all the boxes we see look pretty delicious, they've also been quite pricey. Hoping to indulge our passion for fruit and save a couple hundreds of yen we headed back to Tsukiji Shijio.
Here's our haul. Pretty decent although the strawberries were not as cheap as we had hoped. We actually found then again outside the market for even cheaper. I think after this trip we now know where exactly to go to restock and also know that one of the fruit stands in Higashi Shinjuku is just as cheap as Tsukiji. By the way, sorry Japan but mikan aren't as good as clementines. I love them anyway and won't stop eating them, but you guys need to try Spain's take on tiny oranges to find out what you're missing.
Unfortunately, I failed to bring the camera, so we still don't have pictures of Sushi Dai. Epic once again. My only regret is that I decided to try suzuki - sea bass for the first time and it didn't measure up to the rest of the meal. Also, the last time we got one each of the omakase set and the normal set. It worked out perfectly since the sets were pretty different and unique. We also swapped pieces whenever we wanted to. This time around the sets were pretty similar and the normal set especially was pretty tame. Next time around we'll probably go with the omakase. Can't wait!
The BCG session later that night was interesting. I didn't know anything about the dress code, so I did my best impression of a salaryman and donned my suit. Apparently, it was supposed to be casual wear, but everyone came in suits anyway. Come on. You don't dress down for BCG. I totally don't know how I feel about working in Japan, but I figure while I'm here I might as well look into internships.
Afterward it was just me and Sung-jin, so I proposed we go hit up Ippudo's take on chanpon, Chanpon Taro. Again I didn't have my camera on me, so here's a crappy cell phone pic.
Doesn't taste that different from the Korean version actually, except that it wasn't spicy at all. We added some ra-yu in at the end and it was really similar actually. I have to say that I still prefer it the Korean way and it doesn't measure up to the regular Ippudo across the street. An interesting experience for sure, but not worth a return trip. If I want all sorts of crap in my noodles, I would totally go for tanmen instead.
Phew glad I got that post out of the way in time for Hakone. Stay tuned.
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