October 26th, 2005

So Chris had his second Enkai and I was also invited. I wasnt going to go because its $60 per person BUT a breakdown in communication meant that I was to go (Mihara san assumed I was coming and they already ordered my food so I had to go). It was CRAZY with the foods. So much. They just kept bringing it to us.

When we first got there, they had Chris draw a number to find out which seat he would be sitting in. I didnt have to draw a number since it was assumed I would be sitting next to Chris. So we got sat with 6 crazy Japanese people we didnt know real well. One was Chris supervisor and the guy who witnessed for us and another was the omiyagi lady. The rest we didnt know. But, they were all very nice and spoke enough english that we could communicate.

When we sat down there were two dishes in front of us. One was an ok fish dish that I liked by Chris didnt (he got bones in the one bite he took). The other was the japanese staple sashimi. I actually ate mine for once. On a big plate in the middle we had yakiniku that we were to share with the rest of the people. Chris asked what it was and about 15 minutes of them trying to decide what kind of meat it was, they decided on sheep/lamb and 'japanese beef'. Japanese beef is not actually beef though. Its cow skin and fat. No kidding. Chris took one bite but I didnt touch it. It was the kind of yakiniku that you put raw meat on the grill and cook it at the table on a little grill. When trying to grab a piece of lamb, I ended up dropping it on the table. This old guy next to me helped me and ended up just putting food on my plate. It was kinda funny and a little embrassing but the lamb was tasty.

After that, they brought out some tofu, nori (seaweed), and big ol' fish eggs. Ick. I didnt eat it and neither did Chris. The man sitting across from me REALLY liked the stuff so he ate mine AND he ate Chris's. It was pretty funny. Next they brought Japanese 'zuri'. AFter much chattering, we decided that it was chicken liver. Ew. Chris ate a piece but I avoided it. The guy across from me also ate all of the zuri. Then came fried pork. I was starting to get a tummy ache but Chris really enjoyed the fried pork. Funnily enough, the japanese people were not so keen on the pork. Next came a dish of tofu, nori, and this weird japanese vegetable. I did eat some of this because they were encouraging me a lot and I didnt want to be rude. You ate the green thing with the tofu, so I did and it tasted a lot like broccoli but had a very bitter after taste. THEN they brought us gyoza. Ah a break from gross Japanese food finally. Gyoza are very very tasty and these were very good gyoza. They tried to give me all of the gyoza since I liked them but I politely declined. After the gyoza they brought bamboo covered with tiny red fish eggs. Ew. Neither of us tried it but kinda ignored the people when they encouraged us to try. ("ok! Let's try!
Challenge!" is what they would say to me). After the weird bamboo dish, they brought out some flat looking fried thing with leafy stuff in it. I tried it and it was quite tasty. Tasted a lot like Chinese eggrolls in america (I said this but just confused them). It was a Korean dish though. Then, they brought out some really smelly dish. Turned out that it was natto rolled in egg! It was so gross that we didnt touch it. Natto is fermented soy bean for those who dont know. EW EW EW.

After that, I was feeling kinda bad so Chris and I excused ourselves to leave. While we were leaving they brought out ANOTHER dish. I didnt see what it was though. When we left, we ran into someone who seemed like the owner of the restuarant. We talked to her for awhile and told her about ourselves and where we were from and that we were married. She got her husband and he talked to us for a minute. As we were leaving, they gave us a thing of sake (just a glass/cup) and I thought that was really nice. It was a cute little restaurant and SOME of the food was good.

So that was the Japanese enkai. They are very expensive for what we end up eating, but its just another part of Chris's job. Its weird because there are never any other family members there, just the people from Chris's office. However, Rusty does always bring Satoko to the enkais so I dont feel TOO weird being there.

Anyways, that was my evening. Now Im going to have some cookie and watch 24 with my darling husband.