Tokyo Visit Sept 2010 - Friends & Food!

In the middle of my 6 days in Tokyo I had the chance to meet up on the same day with 2 great Tokyo-ites. I was lucky enough to be able to spend the whole day with Nozomi and her son Kuya who is a little over a year old and as you will soon seen, adorable. I also met up with a former classmate Teneal, who stayed on in Japan to do a PhD.

I met Nozo actually through one of my roomates when I lived in Japan, Cherine. They met at a drumming festival north of Tokyo soon after our group of Rotary Fellows arrived. Nozo and her friend Hiromi also subletted our apartment in Tokyo when we were away for summer internships in summer 2006.

Nozo and I did not hang out too much when I lived in Tokyo, she was a crazy working woman, and architect at a small Tokyo firm and I was busy doing my thing. But life changed for both of us. I moved to Scandinavia and she got married and had Kuya...

















It is nice to see a friendship develop, even though it may be online. We re-connected fast though and had a great day together talking about common friends and what had happened in our lives the last 3 years. She made me a fantastic lunch - zaru soba and a side dish with that yummy kabocha (winter squash) in a soy base sauce - delish! It was a great day, I just hope I see them both again before Kuya finishes high school!














The evening was also great as I got the chance to take my friend Teneal to one of my FAVORITE places in Tokyo, Sosaibo Restaurant. Its a zen restaurant I learned about through a 2005 Japan Times article (you can find it if you Google Sosaibo and Japan Times). I went there 2 times when I lived in Tokyo. Its pricey but amazingly good. Everything organic, everything hand made, everything... delicious!

Amazingly, even though I only went there twice the older couple that run the place remembered me just from the way my friend described me when she called to make the reservation (its critical to go there with someone who speaks Japanese REALLY well). When we arrived I found out that Obasan was upset with me. She sent me a Christmas card to Maine in 2007 (after I left Japan) and I did not write back! Oops. Well this time I got their card and email address and already forwarded some of my photos from the evening to them, so hopefully I am in the clear this time :-)...

It was a great evening, we were the only customers so got lots of time to chat with obasan and ojisan (the owners). They gave us far nicer and more expensive food than I think I paid for, very kind of them.

Here is me with one of the first dishes you get in the meal. Its all vegetarian and each little bowl is there because it has a different flavor, spicy, sweet, sour, salty, bitter, etc. To wake up your senses, the combination also has another significance - as a metaphor for life where we sometimes encounter/or feel spicy, sweet, sour, bitter etc. Whatever the explanation this course wakes up your taste buds in a merry-go-round of fresh flavors.


















Although we did not reserve to have a very fancy meal there, they treated us to a special course a sort of fish soup. You get a plate of delicious raw fish and some vegetables that you dip into the hot boiling broth for anywhere from 5-15 seconds, dip it in the sauce and then eat. I had never had anything like this before, it was fantastic! Obasan also came and had some sake with us and shared some of her ideas about zen and the way life is these days in Japan.












We spent I think 3 hours there and they went by fast! Similar to the last time I went with Carys and Cherine 3 years ago we took a group shot at the end of the night. I will no doubt go there again whenever I have the chance to visit Tokyo, and suggest it for anyone else reading this to try it out too!