The Day in Food

In spite of my hatred of doing the dishes, I try to eat at home as much as possible. But there are times when it just can't be done. I am not a picky eater, so that is not a problem, but I really like how great restaurants are so easy to find in Japan.

My wife and I were out and about and lunch time came up on us. When we were looking for a place to go, my wife told me she wanted to eat something "light". That is not hard to do with Japanese food, but then the problem becomes becomes one of choice.

We passed a soba restaurant and the decision was made for us [her]. This is a shot of her zaru soba. Zaru Soba is soba that comes on top of a bamboo plate with soup on the side. You dip the soba into the soup and slurp it up. It's ideal on hot days or times when you don't want to feel weighed down from the soup.

In the evening we found ourselves in Shiogama which is known for its seafood. I think that all the towns around here are known for seafood given their proximity to the Pacific. Compared with my own hometown, everywhere in Japan is close to the ocean and the seafood is much better here.

In Shiogama we found a place across from the station that had a line in front of it. We were tired of waiting and so we walked a little further and found another sushi restaurant that had a shorter line.

When I lived in Ueno, I loved going to Ameyoko for lunch and getting kaisendon (sashimi on rice) and I was looking for that on the menu when the waitress said their specialty was chirashi zushi which is similar but with vegetables and more variety with the seafood.

The meal came with crab miso soup. The piece of crab that was in the soup was not a good piece, so it didn't have a lot of meat on it. I finally learned how to eat crab though.