The day of interesting food

pork tongue and ox tail
raw meat
kodji-san looks afraid of his pork foot
pork foot, cow tripe, and raw scallop

Yama-san rocking out his speech

June 8th, Day 5:

First off, sorry i messed up the dates before this blog...but today is the 8th.

Our second workday and it already feels so normal! Shower, breakfast, getting dressed, and finding our way to work of course was step 1…success. I was super excited for work today because we would be attending our first presentation and tasting session of the next month. It was a Yakiniku (BBQ) tasting held in Shinjuku. After meeting with Yama-san and Leiko-san to talk about logistics of travelling these next several weeks and about the research we were expected to do, it was time to go back to the computer and have a search engine day! I began researching all the food service trends and segments of Japan’s food industry. With lots of coffee and chocolate covered sunflower seeds, my morning seemed to go by just fine and it was soon lunchtime! Trying to save money and our stomachs for one lunch meal, Bean and I made our way to the convenience store and picked up pasta, popcorn and bananas HA. Randomly delicious lunch. Soon after lunch we were following Yama-san onto the various subway lines into Shinjuku. Right when I stepped out of the train station I was immediately met with tall buildings, busy streets, people of all ages and styles, and blindingly lighted signs. I was not at our small side street of Roppongi anymore! Right away after we reached the high-end restaurant, we believed to be 5 stars, and were put to work rolling posters. Despite my clumsiness and ripping 2 posters (no surprise) it was nice to have physical work to do and we were soon introducing ourselves the Japanese way (exchanging business cards while saying our memorized sentences!).

Hajime Mashite (Nice to meet you)

Isaf to moushi masu (I am Isaf)

Yoroshiku Onegai Shimasu (Best Regards)

Next was 3 hours of mind wrenching presentations in another language, which weren’t too bad and I successfully dodged my narcoleptic ways and stayed awake. Yama-san dragged us up and introduced us during his speech, and i made the rookie mistake of trying to say how much I appreciated being here ..in english..and Yama-san quickly said "No, in Japanese"...what a failure ha but Bean and I couldnt stop laughing about the endless possibilities for us to make those mistakes. Also, I dropped water bottle caps and hit our table at least a few times during the speeches...needless to say I was having a very big klutz night...YAY. ha. There were 2 smoke breaks before our tasting session. Everyone in Japan smokes in large quantities…bean and I still don’t understand. But, soon it was time to eat! I thought that tasting American beef and pork meant having pieces of sirloin or cuts that we were used to in the USA, but boy was I so wrong. First plate was 3 circular rounds of different types of SOMETHING. Of course, we asked Kodji what was staring at us on the plate and his answer consisted of pork foot, cow tripe (stomach), and raw scallop. Ok, so US beef/pork…not so normal? I tried a bite of all three and although the taste was not bad, the different textures were enough for my brain. After our scrumptious first plate, there was a plate of raw beef with a egg yolk on top…yum J ha. At this point, we had tried a small glass of beer, a wine glass of fruity red wine, and got to try a milky colored Korean liquor that had a sweet familiar taste that I was unable to name. Next it was time to cook on the Yakiniku grill. Like fondue in the States, there was a grill in the middle of our table that we would grill our own meat on. It was very cool and I wish US restaurants did this! To grill was cow tongue, stomach, belly, and skirt, and ox tail. It may be hard to admit, but Bean and I ate several servings of cow tongue…the sauces and spices must have been good! Lets not joke here…we enjoyed tongue HA. My stomach was soon getting full on meat, but no worries because the food kept coming. A bowl of rice…something familiar… soup, and ice cream to end the meal! The ice cream was AWESOME as usual. Dinner was over and became a dinner for the storybooks. With some photos and more introductions, we left and headed back on the subway to our hotel. Watching more 10 things I hate about you…not getting very far….and zzzzz.