Escoffier Dinner

At The New Sanno Hotel in downtown Tokyo, I attended an Escoffier Dinner.  It was a seven course dinner that showcased the hotel's best dishes based on the season/theme.  It was fun to get dressed up and have an elegant evening out. The theme of the dinner was Harvest Moon and I think they did a great job with the dishes, especially the wine! With almost every course there was a wine pairing and it was awesome!  My favorite course was the first one, the crab cake was AMAZING it was so juicy and flavorful, I could have had just that and would have been satisfied.  I will definitely be attending another dinner.

The Evening's Menu

Myself and Lauren

The crab cake appetizer - My FAVORITE

Nikko, Japan

Columbus Day Weekend, I took a trip with some friends to Nikko, Japan.  It's a really beautiful town about 3 hours north of where I am.  They have the See No Evil, Hear No Evil and Speak No Evil shrine.  There were so many shrines and temples to see, and A LOT of walking LOL for someone who is totally out of shape there was a lot of walking uphill required, but well worth the exertion!  I took over two hundred pictures so I picked my favorites to share here, but the majority of them are on Facebook.

Laura and Katie

Myself and Stephanie

The good times started early....but the bus broke our spirit...

In front of the Sacred Bridge

On the Sacred Bridge

This picture is too funny! We had two cameras going and Stephanie was trying to figure out which one was going first, but she looks like she's telling someone off.  I love it!

Yes, in a country that is SOOOO healthy this this what they say about cigarette smoking...

Those are fish on a stick, for 500 Yen.  They were roasting them over a fire.  I didn't test that out, but supposedly it's supposed to be good.

Kegan Waterfalls

Our hotel - a traditional Japanese Royokan (hotel) We slept on futons on the floor.  It wasn't too bad, but definitely not something you'd want to do every day.

However they did let us use and iPad for free during our stay.

The parking lot Nazi made Stephanie park in the corner....it was quite comical.

The Sacred Horse

The See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil shrine was under renovation so we didn't get a chance to go inside to see them, but they had a lot of statues to commemorate the shrine.

I'm still here!

Sorry for long wait for the next post, but as expected things got crazier here.  The biggest issue being -I moved out into town!  Everyday when I wake up I still think this is all a dream, but no here I am living in Japan, in a Japanese neighborhood.  My apartment is small, but has a lot of personality!  I'm still furnishing the place so full-pictures will have to wait, but I do have a few smaller images to share.

Here is both my microwave and oven.  Japan is all about saving space and double-using items. While I was  very worried about using this at first, I've come to enjoy it for the most part now.  I was more worried about blowing myself up because my house uses gas for everything, but I've have sense mastered this appliance.  The top left is microwave, the button next to that is the oven.  I twist a little knob to set the time and temp then press the big grey one to start.  Simple enough - Now that I know what I'm doing!

And here is a blurry picture of my toilet.  Apparently, using the buttons are the side will provide a more pleasant bathroom experience. There's a bidet, it will blow air on your bottom and some other water situation, but I've yet to try any of them, I'm sure with a little too much wine one night I'll be willing to give it a try!