The Water Wheel - Fabulous Japanese Dining

Alright, so my camera doesn't really do "night shots," but you get the idea. This little restaurant is tucked away on a tiny side street off of Route 51 and the Japanese name translates to "The Water Wheel." Our friends Dan and Yumiko wanted to take us here and I am SOOOO glad that we found a babysitter and took them up on it! The restaurant is an old house converted and is located very close to both Camp Zama and the Army's Sagamihara Housing. Dan and Yumiko explained to us that because of the remarkable collection of Samurai and turn of the century armor and weapons housed here, the big wigs of the military and American government are often entertained at this restaurant. I have to admit that even with my limited interest in armor and guns, I was super impressed! The places is both a restaurant and a MUSEUM! After one of the servers, (robed in full kimono,) showed us to our private room, we slipped out to view the armor and weapons collections. Below is the room of armor.
Almost all of the guns were well over 100 years old. Every one of them was uniquely decorated and carved.
Not sure how old these guns were...
Cliff amidst the armor. Again, every suit was unique and interesting.

We all liked this one a lot.
Detail of a dragon.
And what samurai collection would be complete without some swords? The rusty thing on the bottom was apparently a sword dating back 1,000's? of years?
And onto the food! Equally if not more impressive than the weapons was the FOOD! I am an artist and thus a sucker for presentation. The Japanese do presentation like no other country on earth. Everything that was served to us had it's own place, edible flowery counterpart, and seasonal story. Everything was fresh. Most importantly, everything was was mind blowingly delicious. We ate crab, squid, season fish, roe, Japanese vegetables that I have never heard of... It was such an adventure! The salad in the bottom right corner had crab and squid and fried squash and POMEGRANATE! Who comes up with these combinations? It was spectacular of course.
This might have been my favorite dish. It was the best sashimi I have ever had in my life. It was fresh and cool and firm and fantastic. The lemon was a nice touch too. YUM! There were at least 6 different kinds of fish.
The sukiyaki was the main course. They brought over the marbled beef and cabbage with mushrooms and noodles and cooked it right in front of us. It was awesome. Just awesome.
Fish and flowers! Lovely!
Scroll in our room.
Our table.

Here we are outside by the wheel. The place is also open for lunch. I can't wait to go back!

Ikebana and "Spit" Restaurant

I have always wanted to take the "ikebana" class offered on the base, but never made the time or the effort until today. Ikebana is the Japanese art of flower arranging. I really enjoyed it! I had the instructor all to myself for the first 30-40 minutes and she was adorable. I mentioned that my mother loved ikebana and had studied this art in the states and BAM! - we were instant friends. She wanted to know all about my mom and her southern garden club. I promised her I would send pictures of my arrangement to my mother for her, so here you go!
Our sensei uses all fresh and real flowers and prefers a "natural arrangement" as opposed to other schools of ikebana. Apparently there are other methods of arranging that focus more on "feeling" and "impressions." Her mantra is basically that "less is more" and the greatest beauty is in simplicity. I really enjoyed her explanations of arrangements as her process reminded me a lot of my art background. Each arrangement needs a foreground, middle-ground, and background and both positive and negative space are important. For the month of October, our sensei brought pumpkins to use in the arrangement! Kawaii!
I am very pleased with my work, though truth be told, my sensei did most of it...
At home on the kitchen table. Lilia loved the yellow and the pumpkins of course!
I couldn't resist. I added a few pumpkins of my own!
After ikebana I met up with Mari and Nicole and together we tried a new restaurant in Yamato for a late lunch! Can you read the sign? Yes, it says "Spit." That is the name of this adorable little "mom and pop" cafe where we ate today. The owners, (a husband/chef and wife,) spoke no English, but we made do with our limited Japanese and hand gestures. It was delightful. The food was wonderful and we were well taken care of.
"Spit"
The lovely Nicole awaiting her meal.
I ordered the pumpkin soup and the pork cutlet millanaise. Just for Cliff :)
The food was wonderful and... "handmade" apparently. The wife/ server was adamant about this. All of the dishes served at "Spit" are handmade. Good to know!
The decor was fun and interesting. Definitely a lifetime of memories in this place.
Husband/ chef hard at work there in the kitchen.
The adorable couple themselves. I will definitely be going back to "Spit!"

Omuraisu

We interrupt your regularly scheduled "Kyoto" programming to bring you a brief edition of dining in Japan! Cliff and Lilia and I went to the VinaWalk today (a local outdoor mall) to get lunch and do some shopping. We went up to the restaurant floor and browsed the display cases for something that looked appealing. I have to admit that when we stumbled upon a display like the one pictured below, I had mixed feelings. Actually... I thought it looked pretty gross.
We deliberated for a moment and I ultimately left the decision up to Cliff. We decided to be adventurous and go for it! Turned out this was an "Omuraisu" restaurant specializing in rice-filled omelets that are covered in various sauces and ingredients. This cuisine borrows its name from the West even though it is absolutely born and bred in Japan. The dish is composed of rice fried with onions and sometimes chicken and veggies and then covered by a very thin omelet. The omelet is then covered in a sauce. Sauces range from tomato and cream to curry to white cream sauce to plain ketchup and sometimes a combination!
I think what made this dish work for me was that it was more rice than egg. I like eggs as much as the next person, but I don't want to over do it. The Japanese people LOVE their eggs, cooked, raw, sweetened, cold... I have braved most egg avenues, but I tend to prefer a conservative dose rather than the eggstreme. Ha ha.... Anyway, the moral of this culinary story is, don't judge a dish by it's overwhelming egg appearance. If you give omuraisu a try, you may be pleasantly surprised.

First Few Weeks in JAPAN!!! Part 1 Arriving

When we first arrived in Japan we were exhausted and understandably overwhelmed. It was a reality check when we stepped of the plane and realized that we couldn't read any of the signs and not very many people spoke English. Somehow we found our way down to the baggage claim area and through customs and our sponsor Scott was waiting for us. I can not even begin to tell you how blessed we felt at the end of our first day. Scott took us home from the airport and had us checked into the Lodge already. He had gotten us some groceries too to get us started. When we arrived at the Lodge we also had a message waiting for us from our new branch president. President Smith came over after Scott had left and he brought us more groceries AND some homemade chili! We had a home cooked meal our first night in Japan! And just before we went to bed ANOTHER family from church came over to welcome us and bring us groceries. After and exhausting and very stressful journey we were about in tears from gratitude... actually I was in tears - but I'm really emotional.
Here is Cliff eating a hot pocket with chopsticks
This is the base chapel and one of the only buildings on base to have been built before the war
There are vending machines EVERYWHERE in Japan. I mean that. Everywhere.
A game? called pachinko is extremely popular over here. It's some kind of gambling game I think...
This is our church building. Isn't it beautiful?? It is only a 5 min. drive from base! They gave me a calling the second week we were there and Cliff and I have already spoken in Sacrament meeting.

These tasty little cookies are shaped like mushrooms. There are a lot of interesting treats and snack foods here. Again, we were so grateful to everyone that brought us groceries and helped us to get settled in. Fortunately we only had to stay in the Lodge for about three weeks and we have already moved in to our garden apartment. Our TLA helped us to buy a car (I'll post a pic soon) AND a kitchen table set so we are off to a great start here! Our express move got here this past Friday and our household goods shipment is due mid-September.

First Few Weeks in JAPAN!!! Part 2 FOOD!!

Our first week here we went out to a "sushi-go-round" with a family from church. IT WAS AWESOME!! If you aren't familiar with the term, this is how it works: You sit down at your booth and there is a conveyor belt that goes around the restaurant with various plates of sushi on it. The plates that the sushi are on are color coded for price. At this particular restaurant the prices ranged from about $1.00 (pink plate) to $2.75 (yellow plate.) The server counts the plates at the end of the meal and that is how they total your bill. It's great because you can just take whatever looks good to you and you don't have to worry about overeating because you can stop taking plates at any time! We have been to two so far. This one was a little nicer and had an incredible assortment of sushi. We have also been to a slightly less expensive sushi-go-round that is located right out the main gate that was 105 yen a plate for anything in the restaurant. It was pretty good too.
Cliff's happy sushi face :)
Our first weekend here... I think... one of the guys from Cliff's squadron and his wife took us out to a ramen house. Ramen over here isn't anything like the 10cent ramen packages you get in the states. It's really good! The dish pictured above was very spicy and had pork, bean sprouts, chili peppers, and scallions in it. It was delicious. I think we will be eating a lot of ramen when the weather cools down. I don't know if you can tell from the picture but the bowl was HUGE. Cliff and I split it and still were unable to finish it.
We also got some rice and gyoza (Chinese style dumplings) to go with our meal.
Here is a pretty typical boxed lunch/dinner from a grocery store. You can also buy these at gas stations and convenience stores here! I know that sounds strange and I would probably never buy a meal at a gas station if I could help it in the U.S. but it's common here. Everything is very fresh. This meal of sushi and cold soba was about... $3.50 or so.


Thus far into our adventure over here I LOVE the food. We have tried the ramen, the sushi (of course,) the katsudon (breaded and fried pork cutlet,) takoyaki (fried octopus dumpling,) and yakitori. We have also tried the Japanese curry rice and that is really good too. We love going out to eat even with the language barrier. We have learned a few Japanese words and phrases and the people here are so kind and friendly that we never feel uncomfortable. They are delighted when we attempt to speak their language, and we often do! Also, tipping is not customary in Japan so even though the difference is probably factored into the price - you don't feel like you are spending as much ;)