Celebration Dinner

Following the awards ceremony, Xavier, Jeff & I took the bright green Fuji Bus. Yes, they have a dedicated bus for the Fuji employees to ride to & from Izumisano Train Station. It’s much nicer than I expected. I expected it to be a more “basic” model bus, without air conditioning. However, it was air-conditioned & had very comfy cushioned seats. There were even seats that flipped down from the arm of the right row of aisle seats. The flip down seat was for someone to sit in the middle aisle, if all the other seats were full. Cool idea!!!

I was thinking about why U.S. buses don’t have that kind of flip down seat. Maybe it’s for some sort of safety reason – all aisles must be clear or something. Who knows! I thought it was a great use of space & maximized the # of people that could ride the bus, thus probably saving fuel costs.

After arriving at the train station, we walked several blocks. I don’t recall the name of the restaurant that we were headed to, but Jeff said that they were known for their “fresh” fish & seafood. So fresh that the fins of the fish might still be flopping when they bring them to your table. I’ve gotten to the point that I can’t tell when he’s serious or just joking with me for effect!!   Either way, I’m not eating any fish or any meat for that matter, that’s still moving when it comes to the table!!!

We were the first to arrive at the moderately sized neighborhood restaurant. We were escorted upstairs to our “private” room. We removed our shoes & placed them on the shelves.  These particular tables didn’t have the lower area to dangle your legs and feet. You had to sit on your legs & feet or sit “Indian-style”. Thank goodness I’m still fairly flexible, but after an hour or so it’s just not comfortable. Long-legged people were not meant to sit in this manner for extended lengths of time. Maybe that’s the point; the restaurant doesn’t want you to stay for too long. Who knows!

We ordered our drinks and reviewed the menu. The waitress explained to Jeff that the menu had already been chosen when the reservations were made. I guess this was an “R & D” group party and they pre-arranged the menu. Jeff kind of laughed & looked at Xvaier & me. “Well,” he said, “there’s only one thing you’ll like. Everything they ordered is fish!”

GREAT!! Another evening in Japan – another food adventure!! Bring it on!!

Jeff ordered an “appetizer” – boiled soybeans. These are actually pretty good, as long as their salted. The other dinner guests began to arrive. I recognized everyone from Barry’s office, but I don’t remember their names. In addition to Barry’s group, Harry Harada, Jack Nishimura & Mr. Shindashi were also there (I don’t know if I spelled that correctly).

As the food started rolling out, I was amazed & mortified!! How does anyone like this stuff? If this was all I had to eat, would I be able to survive? I just don’t think so!

Let’s see we had:

-             an assortment of octopus, raw fish & squid (I didn’t try any of this).

-             crab legs – cool thing about these were that they remove part of the shell on the back so you can dig out the mean with your chopsticks. They don’t give you ‘crackers’ to break the shell. (I ate some of these – even though I don’t like crab legs).

-             there was some kind of thing that I thought was squid, but it’s probably not (looked gross – didn’t try it).

-             pickled eggplant (I can tolerate a few pieces of this).

-             at least four kinds of fried fish – don’t know what kind (I think I tasted a small piece of one of them – yuck!)

-             beef tongue – why do they like this? (I ate a piece of this – still don’t like it).

-             there was a whole fish (red) that still had the eyes & tail w/ tofu on the side. (I didn’t touch that with a 10-foot pole) All that was left of that was the bones – someone ate the head!

Barry & the girl sitting next to me (the one that would later guard the bathroom for me), must have felt bad for me because they asked the waitress to bring a menu. They ordered several things for Xavier & me to try.

-         Potato Salad – this was pretty good. I think it had some kind of Japanese pickles in it.

-         Ham Roll Ups – I don’t know what they are really called, but literally, it was a piece of ham sandwich meat w/ some kind of creamy cheese filling. Then they batter-dipped & fried it. They sauce to dip it in was a sesame flavor (almost like peanut butter). Strange, but pretty good!!

-         Asparagus & Bacon Wraps – I don’t think I ever got around to trying these. There was so much to eat that night (especially after they order me the “American” food. I’m sure they were good though!

-         Mushroom Wraps – I don’t know the type of mushroom, but they are stringy & get caught in your teeth. A mild flavor, but strange texture.

-         Fried Shrimp – can’t go wrong here! These were super good. They were served w/ the same sesame (peanut buttery) flavored dipping sauce. I could have eaten several more.

-         Chicken Kabobs – Oops! I don’t think I tried these either!

During dinner, Xavier & I were both asked to stand in front of the crowd and tell a little bit about our jobs with Fuji. Of course we both gave our introductions in English! The majority of the group under stands a little English & several understand it well. But I probably still could have said, "I sit at my desk all day and surf the internet shopping for scrapbooking embellishments," and they wouldn’t have known the difference!!

Before we left the restaurant I had to use the bathroom. You may recall the story in the “Toilet” blog post…

. . . . . We were leaving dinner Friday night and heading to the Karaoke bar (I promise I’ll tell you about that later).  I figured the restaurant bathroom would be cleaner than the one at the Karaoke bar. One of the girls went with me to stand outside the door. (Gosh, I wish I knew what her name was, she was so kind to me.) Anyways, we walked to the bathroom. . . . . (if you want to read the rest of the toilet story, go to the previous post)