Happy Halloween everyone!
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If I ever thought about becoming a vegetarian, I have now completely forsaken all such foolish thoughts: Last weekend, while on a walk through Fussa City, Rheagan I and stumbled upon a very nice little restaurant who’s name I cannot pronounce let alone spell. Anyways, this was one of those joints that doesn’t typically cater to westerners. There was no English on the outside of the building and the door frame cut off at about my chin (The Japanese are many things, but tall is not one of them!). In fact, we were not even sure that we were looking a restaurant until we spotted some neon red signs of bull-heads and some dining tables through the restaurant’s window. We were starving and decided to give the joint a shot.
We marched in and were immediately greeted and seated in a very tight arrangement around a table with a gas burner at the center. Lucas, taking after his father, immediately reached for the burner which was thankfully off. Ordering food turned out to be quite an ordeal. The menu was 100% Japanese with no pictures and our waiter knew only slightly more English then we did Japanese. Finally we were able to discern which parts of the menu were chicken, beef, and soup. The remaining 75% of the menu remained a mystery. Rheagan and I randomly selected a chicken dish and a beef dish. Lucas selected cheerios and crackers, but quickly decided that they needed to be on the floor rather than in his belly....
After about 15 minutes, our waiter returned and began placing all sorts of bowls, plates, and forks around the burner at the center of the table. All of the bowls and plates were empty save for a few unidentifiable sauces and/or liquids. The waiter then clicked the burner on and dashed away. As soon as the waiter was gone, Lucas made another dive for the burner. His mother’s cat-like/Marine reflexes prevented any damage from occurring (sure is a good thing that Lucas has his mother around to balance out all of my bad genes). The waiter returned and delivered 3 large plates with, very carefully/thinly cut, raw chicken and beef arranged on them. He also brought out 2 large bowls of soup. The waiter made some odd gestures at the food and then at the burner. The message was clear: cook the food for yourself.
We ate the chicken first. It was so-so, certainly nothing to complain about. Next we went for the beef which was heavily marbled with fat. Turns out that the beef was "Kobe Beef". It was hands down the best beef that I have ever had--period. Imagine a low end BK hamburger and then compare that taste with that of the best steak that you have ever had. Now take the difference in taste between 'low end BK' and 'Best steak ever' and multiply it by about 10. This is how much better Kobe-Beef is than any stake that that I have had in the States.
Unfortunately, there was a down side to this little culinary adventure. And that down side was the soup. How it is that the Japanese can serve such wonderful beef with such terrible soup, ill never know. Imagine the taste of hot tap water (aged 2 days) mixed with mulch. Yuck!
Well, it looks like the photo album is back by popular demand.
This first album is from our family trip to Showa Kinen Park which is about 4 –5 miles from the base as the bird flies and about 45 minutes as the Frantz family drives. The park is full of all kinds of stuff: it is part water park, part nature trail, part theme park, part frisbee-golf-course, part bike trail, part Japanese garden (this is where we spent much of our time), the list goes on.... < click on the picture to see the pictures -- dont forget to look at the second page of photos... >
Mt Fugi as seen from the Air Base
The next set of pictures is entitled ‘Dr Bash’. This is the super hero name that Lucas has decided to take on. He feels that basking is what he dose the best (I must say that I agree!). :)
Lucas helping his Mom paint the living room
Lucas News: Lucas is now walking with the help of mom and dad holding his hands for support (not holding him up). Craziness! It should be only a matter of months before he is competing in the Boston Marathon. Also, he upgraded his diet to the inclusion of very small bits of chicken this last week. This is how he convinced his mother that he could have chicken:
Lucas: "Mom, I would like to be just like Dad when I grow up!"
Rheagan: "Hmm, are sure about that? He is a little thick between the ears sometimes."
Lucas: "Well, maybe not ‘just’ like Dad. But I would like to have the same job that he has"
Rheagan: "You mean that you would like to be a Shenanigan when you grow up?"
Lucas: "No, not that!"
Rheagan: "You want to be a Cod Fish?"
Lucas: "No, not that job either....the other one"
Rheagan: "Oh, you mean that you want to be in the Air Force?"
Lucas: "Well that would ok....maybe. But that’s not what I mean either. I’m talking about his other job...the secret one!"
Rheagan: "Hmm...so you want to be the Dread Pirate Roberts?"
Lucas: "That’s right! That’s the best job ever. Daddy is so cool. He has the mask and the cape and the saber and the sail ship and he is even immune to arsenic...."
Lucas: "Mom, Ill never become the Dread Pirate Roberts if I don’t start building up my immunity to arsenic. Can I have some arsenic?"
Rheagan: "You must be kidding!?!"
Lucas: "Mom, this is serious. I need to be Dread Pirate Roberts!"
Rheagan: "It’s out of the question"
Lucas: "But Mom...!"
Rheagan: "Ill tell you what. You can have some of this chicken. That sounds good doesn’t it?"
Lucas: "hmm....ok" ....and quietly to himself: *snicker, snicker, snicker*
The little man plays his parents like a fiddle on a sunny Sunday afternoon. :)
Turns out that we did decide to get the 94 Honda Accord. It has 90,000 on the speedo (That’s in kilometers!). Plus it has a V-tech engine, and all kinds of weird gadgets that I don’t understand on the dash board. All of the buttons are written in western characters, but they are labeled with one letter, at most two (and never with a vowel). The owner’s manual is of course in Japanese....so no help there. However, the big upside is that is has a super cool sound system...best that I have ever had. Er, maybe that is not really saying much....lets just say that it is very cool. The problem with the sound system is that it has far to many control devices and gadgets for a normal person to use easily. In fact it took me 1 ½ weeks just to figure out how to change the radio station. The CD player still fools me from time to time....but I can get it to work. We didn’t spend very much on the car. When a car gets to be about 5 years old in Japan, it’s value goes way into the tank. Everyone is big on having the latest and the greatest here. If we are driving in town, then it is almost a sure bet that we have the oldest car on the road. Once I get my act together, I will get a few pics up.....
