Today, I woke up from a terrible nightmare to a really good day with Keiko.

She picked me up at 2pm and we went to Aspia to buy a few things, namely tape and a Japanese sharpie to label the huge box in her backseat. I mailed the replica samurai sword to my sister today for the reasonable fee of 3600yen. Required TONS of paperwork, I couldn't believe. Apparently, Canada requires that you fill out many customs forms, and they woman made sure I wrote "toy" although replica indicates it's a fake, but hey why not, I guess.

But it was a success! Keiko and I decided we needed some coffee (or hot cocoa in her case) after the lengthy deliberations to get the sword mailed. We drove to Carrefour is Tsuchiyama (I think) and went to Starbucks. Yummy Marshmallow Mocha. We sat and talked a bit about the day, and decided to have *SHABU SHABU* for dinner. I got very excited, because this is the one food dad saw fit to mention in Japan, so I figured it must be absolutely scrumptious!

We went shopping a bit in Carrefour, because they sell great cheese. I bought some cream cheese, and a little bit of smoked cheese, which I am very pleased with. I also got some heating pads (Godsends, seriously, far better than anything Canada ever cooked up and CHEAP; 300yen for 10 twenty-four hour pads!), a hilarious dvd of music videos from the 80s, 3 classical CDs for 315yen (who could resist?), and crackers galore...

We left at 5:30pm, to make our way through the traffic to Nishishimmachi to pick up Keiko's mom, Setsuko, and head to the Shabu Shabu restaurant.

We got there, and were seated. they have little sheets to cover your coats, because some the pot spits water onto clothing. Interesting.. The waitresses all wear matching cute blue patterned kimonos. They set up a pot on our table with water and started to heat it to boil. We decided ona set of meat and whatnot, and we were ready to go. Here is the shabu shabu pot.


Once the water was boiling, we got going! The waitress got nervous when I wanted to take a picture, which was adorable. She cooked the first pieces of meat for us, and then we could dip them in either a sesame peanuty-tasting sauce, or a soya based one. The beef, thinly sliced and just raring *haha* to be shabu'd is off the right. Smiling is Setsuko, Keiko's mom.


The beef is cookin'!


The beef is now cooked. It is now resting happily in the sesame sauce bowl right in front of the big-ass pot!


These are the raw veggies that go into the big pot to meat *smirk* their demise! Some kind of sprout, something akin to bok choi, shitake mushrooms *yummy*, and delicious tofu cubes. (I'm being serious; I sincerely adore tofu.)


So, the story goes that when you cook the beef, you move your hand back and forth, to and fro, and the beef makes a sound. (100yen to whoever can guess first what this mysterious sound is!) I had a chance to try my hand at cooking shabu shabu, and low and behold, NO SOUND! Just bubbles. This is the sad Lily face that resulted. Just kidding. Actually I think Keiko tried to take the picture, but in the momentary delay, my face fell back into concentration on not losing the swimming beef in the boiling water. *Chopsticks can be a bit iffy sometimes for me.*


Here's the picture we all wanted! Lily smiling and cooking shabu shabu just like a regular Vanna White! I actually really enjoyed the whole meal, it had a lot of tradition to it.


After we ate the beef and vegetables, they cleaned up our water with a little scoop thingy. Then they cooked some long thin udon (looked like fettucine, as Keiko pointed out) and some mochi. Mochi is rice goo, they rice cake, but it's goo. It tastes good, though. People also eat mochi traditionally with their New Years osechi. Delicious mochi! Tough to eat, though. Bugger all!

I even poured Keiko's mom some tea, and some complimented my Japanese pouring with my right hand while daintily holding the lid in place with my left. Thank you, "Sayuri" for teaching me proper tea etiquette! She even said Keiko doesn't pour as nicely as me! *HAHA!*

After that, we ate some nice 'macha' ice cream (green tea), and also drank some nice hot green tea! All in all, it was a splendid day, filled with good food and good company. Thank you Keiko and Setsuko for making my Saturday great!