Last weekend: Friday

I'm going to do my best to recount the events of last weekend. You can refer to my photos for a better idea of what I did. I'll also note that I was with my friend Matteo, who has Nikon D300, so I took fewer photos and am banking on copies of his. On a further tangent, Matteo takes copious photos of Japanese children. Sure they're cute, but if other people find his camera, he might have some explaining to do.

Friday night, we went out to Gyu Kaku, which is a barbeque chain. There happens to be one by my apartment that I have now been to 3 times. The English speaking waitress knows Laura and I now because she is always the one to serve us, since she's the only waitress with good English. Now when I say barbeque I don't mean that they serve you barbeque food like ribs, steaks, etc. I mean that they bring a charcoal grill to your table and you grill up meat that you order. You can also order vegetables, which is a big part of why we like the place. It's pretty difficult to get many vegetables here in Japan, at least in restaurants.

So we took Steve and Matteo there because we promised them it was good and we knew they have an English menu. Laura and I start by ordering some of our favorites. Steve and Matteo picked few things as well and we began cooking. As it turned out, our first grill was a bust and it had to be replaced. Our favorite waitress was nowhere to be seen when we walked in, but she eventually came and found us. She hooked us up with a fresh grill and kept checking on us to make sure things were good. She even offered to move us to a new table, since the grill sits inside the table and there is a whole air flow system built into each table.

We grilled what we could and managed to make due with a bum table. The waitress asked Steve and Matteo if they were also from University of Tokyo (which I'll add is like the MIT of Japan, people get really impressed when you say you are working there). Things were going well, but I was developing a headache. It kind of sucked, because I was having a good time and didn't want to bail and I was comforted by the knowledge that I was only 5 minutes walk from my apartment.

Laura and got pretty full on the first few rounds of food, however Steve and Matteo had other plans. They decided they would order one of the big plates of meat; one that serves 3-4 people. Laura and I protested, but the food was ordered anyway. So I'm sitting there with a headache, wanting to leave, but stuck eating more meat after I was already full.

The big plate of meat comes and goes. I'm still feeling pretty awful, but I wasn't as full as I thought so the meat wasn't a big deal. I just want to leave and go home and sleep off this headache, which seems like it might be a migraine. What happens when the meat runs out? Steve and Matteo order another plate, almost the same size but this time they listen to our protests and get a smaller plate. So we're now several plates of meat each into this meal, I'm dying with a migraine and more meat is on its way.

We get through the next plate of meat and I'm thinking I'm finally in the clear. No. Now it's time for dessert. I really can't blame them, because the dessert there is really good. You can get these fish shaped things that look like waffles, but you grill them and they're filled with some form of red bean paste. Despite that potentially unappealing description, they're pretty tasty. The guy at the table next to ours folded an origami crane out of the paper envelope that the fish are served in.

I did eventually make it home and subsequently passed out. I woke up the next morning feeling much better, but not looking to eat any meat for a while.