Saturday, August 30, 2014

Meat the Coast

Wow what a cringeworthy title.

This beautiful meat is from this heavenly place, a yakiniku place in Ginza. Cat said this was the best meal she had last summer in Japan, so we decided to go have a nice dinner after work one day! Our waitress was able to explain the whole menu in English which was kind of awesome but kind of annoying because she assumed we knew zero Japanese.  Even when I asked her questions in Japanese, she'd respond with English. Then I just felt stupid. But all feelings of linguistic inferiority aside, man that was an absolutely delicious meal.  We many different cuts of meat, but I honestly couldn't keep track of what was what. Cat and I grilled each piece one by one and ate so slowly relishing each slice that our waitress even commented on it lol.  It was pretty beautiful watching the fat melt and cook the meat, so beautiful in fact, that we were mesmerized and didn't realize that it was on fire. Apparently you're supposed to put the meat on the side of the grill so it can cook slowly. We figured that out when another waiter suddenly appeared, turned our fire down, moved our meat to the side, and promptly left without a word.  We had literally been sitting there staring at the fire and taking pictures like idiots (photographic proof found below). But even though our first few pieces were slightly burned, they were nevertheless juicy (crispy) and delicious. Our meal concluded with delicious mochi-like desserts wrapped in fragrant leaves. We spent a good minute or two smelling the leaves while eating our dessert, raving like lunatics about the fresh mountain air... I hope they didn't see us again. I left feeling full, but not too full, and very very satisfied. 満足 - satisfaction AKA my word of the summer.
Beautiful beautiful meat T_T
Us watching our meal getting engulfed by flames and doing nothing about it lol. The lanterns are a random street in Ginza we passed on our way home.
The second half of this post is about Izu! The weekend following this wonderful dining experience, we headed south to the Izu Peninsula to stay at a ryokan and see the coastline. Unfortunately on our way there we were too busy playing word games to notice that we had been on the wrong train for more than an hour. So we got off, switched trains and was delayed by two hours lol. Luckily we made it to our ryokan shortly before the typhoon was scheduled to hit.  We arrived to a wonderfully elaborate meal made up of a billion little things (included a sketchy snail thing) and knocked it back with some chilled sake and hot tea. After spending some time digesting, we donned our yukata and made our way to the outdoor bathes. They overlooked the coastline which was black and ominous at night, but the outdoor deck was cozy and decorated with rocks and fake plants. It was very relaxing sans the moment when Kristin spotted a gigantic spider and we freaked out and jumped into the bath. After our bath we relaxed in our room, playing contact (another word game lol so nerdy) and knocking back a few drinks. I also got my hair braided haha - it felt like middle school all over again.  The next morning we had another beautiful meal and I took a walk with the two Cats (two people named Catherine) while the other two took a quick nap.  The air was humid like no other but I enjoyed the beautiful wild flowers, rice fields, and rocky coastline. By the time we arrived back at the ryokan, we were very damp. However, turns out the bathes were closed in the morning! So we quickly packed up and walked to the train station, still very damp.  We stopped somewhere along the way to see the cliffs and waves, and I was being a grouch about walking so much until we reached the coast and I was blown away by the view. The water was a bright aqua, and it gleamed and shimmered as it broke on the rocks even though it was an overcast day.  Just imagine it on a bright clear day! It was if someone was photoshopping my vision in real time. Crazy. We spent the next few hours exploring the coastline and climbing rocks. The wind was amazing! We sat on the edge of a cliff for a while, watching the waves crash on the neighboring cliffs and being enveloped by the wind.      
The Izu crew! 
The beautiful scenery of Izu- Just look at that water!

1 comment:

  1. damn that water really is beautiful!!! also your yakiniku story lolz they probs thought y'all took food pictures to a whole new level of stupidity hahahhaha

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for reading :)