Dinner With the Maeda'a

During my flight over to Tokyo, fate favoured me and I sat next to one of my high school administrators. He put me in touch with a family whom had gone to Brentwood, and whom he said would be more than willing to meet me and show me a good time.

After much correspondence with the family- the Maeda's, I met up with them in the central, business sector of Tokyo. We went to a hotel, the Grand Arc Hazomon and ducked downstairs to our very own private room with two sushi chefs just for us. I was a little nervous to try all the raw fish, as many of you know I've been a strict vegitarian for a while now and bringing fish back into my diet was a special exception made for Japan. I figure there is no time like the present, and no way I'm ever going to eat sushi like the sushi I'm going to eat here!

The starter was raw octopus, with its little suction cups still on the legs of it! I was kind of freaking out, but popped it into my mouth with a big smile on, not wanting to be rude. To my surprise I actually liked it! While the texture took a while to get used to, the flavour was nice and strong, (marinated with tariaki and ginger).

Next came rounds of sashimi (raw fish) served over rice, traditional sushi. They only serve one or two pieces of each type of sushi here, to make sure that guests are able to try each style before getting full. I hoovered down raw fish after raw fish, raw squid (my stomach did a back flip when I realized what I had just ate! I didn't ask questions, I just ate everything I could!). The different flavours, the textures, everything was a new experience. I really like the raw tuna, and was proud of myself for trying the raw salmon eggs. The eggs were really strange, they kind of popped in your mouth when you bit down on them, exploding everywhere and coating your mouth with a strong fish flavour. Interesting...

I had some warmed Saki, and some beers while I was eating and had great conversation with one of the sons who had come along to dinner with us, Shinsuke. His friend, Yusuke came along, and we had a great time over dinner while they explained to me what I was eating. They thought my reactions were hilarious, and they probably were.

Afterwards they took me out to another hotel to the 14th floor to have a cocktail. With the entire city scape of Tokyo sprawled out beneath us, all lit up for the evening, I was completley speechless. I had a yummy Daqari, and marveled at Tokyo Tower, which was lit up special that evening in hopes of impressing Olympics officials who had come to check out the city that night. It was beautiful.

I felt a little bad when I arrived to meet the Maeda's, because I thought a good gift idea would be to give them some real authentic Quebec Maply Syrup! I brought along a can that I had bought off a French Canadian in my dorm. I was happy to give them the gift, but felt a little sheepish when they handed me an elaborate gift all wrapped up and clearly very expensive. Inside a little wooden box was traditional Japanese Jelly, which you eat by itself. Its very firm and sweet, and made from a red bean here. Its delicious, but like I said, I felt bad handing them a can of maple syrup after I saw what they had for me! Oh well..

Getting home I was exhausted and collapsed in my bed. I had class the next morning at 9 and had to be up showered, fed and dressed for the train by 8.

What a long day.