Japan Fourteen

Yesterday I abandoned Maureen (who had a perfectly lovely day in our local area now she is confident enough to get out on her own and explore and shop!!)

I went to meet Master and his family… you will remember young Jin who came to visit in Jan/Feb. (His Sister Meiru was busy yesterday.)

Master owned a small local pub (an Izakaya) called Hitsuji when I was living in Japan. I loved going down there to treat myself to dinner.

We started off in Nara where they picked me up and then drove to a park via my old school where I lived and the izakaya which is now an Italian restaurant!!

They picked up a pre made order from a sandwich shop then selected a place to sit and enjoy!

Holy Cats look at the size of that sandwich!!! That’s for one person!!

Yoshiko with one of her sandwiches! Comes in a neat little boat of paper to eat it in without making too much mess!

Once we were stuffed full of amazing sandwich we took a walk through the park.

This was a pretty area, but it would have been stunning with the cherry blossoms and tulips out!

Some senior citizen groups made their own display garden patches too.

From nature to not nature… we had a booking at an Izakaya in Tenoji, Osaka but before the scheduled time we wandered about in the overwhelmingly coloured street with sideshow carnival like shops and noise.

I’m just going to hit you with it… no need for me to say anything…it’s all pretty visual!

There is a slide down the side of the tower….see on right side in below pic.

You can even have a go at some archery if you want!

And then it was back out to some sensible coloured high rises!!

And on to the grand finale of the day with our dinner!

The atmosphere here was so energetic and noisy – but great fun!

Luckily I didn’t have to worry about ordering… left that in Masters capable hands.

All dishes come out one by one and we all share which is awesome as you get lots of great taste experiences.

The above plate had some Korean style noodles, slices of sweet potato and a pumpkin mash. All SO tasty!

A Ceasar salad

Sashimi.. raw fish that you dip in soy. Not a usual dish for me but it was really nice!!

Chicken with a creamy mayonnaise sauce…divine!

Chicken skewers…leg, breast, heart, stomach…?? Can’t remember the other one. But the ones I had were really simple and tasty.

Stopping for a fun people shot in among the food!

And don’t you love the plates??

This was also divine… kind of an olive oil base.. you dipped the bread in and added the prawns,tomato and broccoli on top!

Wait… there’s more!!! (Where is all this going you ask especially after that massive sandwich at lunch!!!!) (I asked this many times to myself but I soldiered on heroically)

Jellyfish! Because why not?? It wasn’t bad…the texture was a little weird to me. Kind of a mix between crunchy and rubbery if that’s even possible!!

Before you laugh… these aren’t your ordinary chips! They came in a bag and then you added the savoury powder to shake them up in. The seasoning was butter – soy!!! I don’t know how that’s achieved but they were fabulous.

These were several chicken dishes with different flavours… I had half the cheese one…some were spicy and one had to be dipped in the raw egg. And isn’t that plate cool?

And because you have a different stomach pocket for dessert… we had dessert!!! Jin had a kind of fried naan with ice cream, Yoshiko had ice cream,

I had a luuurevely choccie cake and ice cream and Master, like a seasoned pub owner, had his fifth beer and was as steady as a rock!!!

(Pub door handle)

All in all it was an amazing proper Japanese experience and I loved seeing my friends again. They are always so kind and welcoming when I drop back into Japan!

Xxx.