An "American" Japanese Dinner

Me, Barry, Marc & Mr. Nakao
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Where did I leave off. . . .

Barry picked me up at the hotel @ 6 pm for dinner. We were going to a Japanese restaurant/bar in Izumisano (section of Osaka). We met Marc & Mr. Nakao there. All three of these Japanese guys have lived & worked for Fuji in either Savannah and/or New York. I guess I might not have explained that when the Japanese come to the Savannah Plant to work, we (usually the ladies in the office) chose an American name for each of them (they're easier for us to remember & pronounce).  So it was like going to dinner with old friends.

...down an alley, down a couple flights of stairs & down a dingy hallway

Hot Dogs, French Fries & Fried Chicken! (Good)
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Barry & I walked for several blocks from the train station. Seriously, as we were walking, I was thinking that he was taking me to some nasty hole in the wall place.  I started to remind me of South Korea (I lived there in 1989). Well it was a hole in the wall, but it wasn't nasty. It was just this little restaurant & bar that was down an alley, down a couple flights of stairs & down a dingy hallway - weird but ok.

And another food adventure begins. . . . Marc & Mr. Nakao had already ordered. But guess what was the first thing they ordered . . .french fries, fried chicken & hot dogs!!  Wonderful – I was thrilled, maybe I could finally eat something I could recognize!

Beef Patty w/ Mashed Potatoes. (Yummy)
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Next we had some type of beef patty over mashed potatoes. I was in heaven!! YUMMY! Then came the thinly sliced pieces of beef (I think we had this the night before). They were very raw (only browned on the edges). I ate a couple pieces, some of the things are better when dipped in the soy or different dipping sauces they serve with it (no ketchup this time).

As we finished eating (or so I thought), Marc & Mr. Nakao were reviewing the menu. They placed another order. I heard them say spaghetti & a few other things that I didn’t understand. Could it be? Spaghetti sounded so good right now!! I waited anxiously; my mouth yearning for the taste of tomato, basil, oregano, garlic & onion. Here she comes with our next round of food.

Spaghetti - where's the spaghetti sauce!
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What a letdown! They looked like spaghetti noodles, but there was no tomato sauce. There was some sort of light sauce & weird looking mushrooms. When life settles down a bit, I really need to look at this stuff up & find out the real names for the foods I ate!  They also ordered what I would call a “house” fried rice. It looked like it had a little bit of everything in it. The guys assured me that it didn’t have any fish in it. So I dug in. Oh crap I found a shrimp. Weird thing about me is that I will eat shrimp, but only certain ways. I don’t like shrimp scampi or shrimp fried rice.  I’ll eat fried shrimp, shrimp cocktail, shrimp tempura, low country boil shrimp and the hibachi shrimp from Musashi’s. Don’t ask me to explain it, that’s just the way it is!! I continued to eat the rice, but ate around the shrimp.

The ice cream was sooo good!!
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Over all they did a great job ordering. They knew I didn’t like seafood or fish. So, it was cool that they ordered things that were seafood/fish free!!! Oh and dessert was gooood; Vanilla ice cream w/ a cherry on the top.

We didn’t just eat; we talked and caught up on things they have missed since they were gone. They wanted to know about the Sales Coordinator position and generally how everyone was doing.  Jeff arrived later & ordered some kind of tofu soup – I was too full to try it – not that I wanted to!! All in all, it was a great dinner.

Train ride.
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It was about 9 and I was wondering what was going to happen next. They knew I had to get up early in the morning and hopefully be rested for the presentation, so we headed for the train station.

Barry thought that he should take me all the way back to my hotel, even though it wasn’t the way he needed to go to get home. I told him I could handle the train ride by myself. I only had to go to the next station & get off. The train station is next to the hotel, no big deal. I bought my ticket, they made sure I knew which section of the platform to wait on & we said our good-bye until tomorrow.

Japanese skateboarder.
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When I got off the train, I wandered around the train station & outside the hotel for a little while. It was so nice out; probably in the high 70’s and there was a nice breeze. I saw a guy skateboarding outside the train station. I asked him if I could take his picture. He didn’t understand me so I had to use my hand signals (point to camera – pretend to push button – point to him – point to his skateboard). Then he nodded, but just stood there. I wanted action shots, so I then said; “Go ahead, skate, go” and I made a back & forth motion with my hands.

Self portrait w/ train & hotel in background
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This was the 1^st person I saw skateboarding, for that matter, I haven’t even seen a skateboard or skate store. Guess it’s not popular in this area. I thanked him (domo – means thanks) & continued towards the hotel. I took some dorky self portraits, which is difficult when it’s dark outside.

I was going to go straight to my room (I had even already chosen the button for my floor in the elevator) and then I remembered something that Jeff said. Earlier I asked how I could get pictures of the bridge that going from Osaka to the Kansai Airport (the airport is on an island). Jeff said that on the 51-53 floor of the hotel, there are restaurants, bars & a private dining room that have a view of the bridge. He said if I went to the 52^nd floor and asked the hostess at the restaurant, they would let me take some pictures out the window.

View of bridge to Kansai Airport from 52nd floor of hotel.
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I really wanted pictures of the bridge, but was too chicken to go to the 52^nd floor. As the elevator went up, it stopped on the 47^th floor. I got out, took some night shots of the Fuji plant. Then I thought, what am I afraid of? Am I stupid (don’t answer that), this is the chance of a lifetime. If you want a picture of the bridge, go get a picture of the bridge, all they can do is say no!!

So I marched back on the elevator and went to the 52^nd floor.   I asked very politely and explained that this was my 1st trip to Japan.  They were very nice. They even let me go into one of the empty private rooms so I could turn off the light. The pictures didn’t turn out that great, but I’m hoping that when I get home I can fix them a little.

Thinly sliced beef, just barely cooked. Apparently this is how they like to eat beef.
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I then proudly took myself to my room & went straight to bed.  I wanted to update the blog that night, but Friday was going to be a big day for me. I needed to be well rested, . . . . . . . . if I had only known how true that was going to be!!!