This giant crab actually moved; neat! Seafood was definitely served there, but we kept looking.
Wandering still, we went into a little courtyard and found this totally sweet bull, and...
...a couple of totally sweet dragon fountains.
Totally sweet.
It was getting late and we were really starting to get hungry, so the search for sushi got real. And we found a place called Chojiro. If you like sushi, you want to know about Chojiro.
First, the menus are multi-lingual AND you order your food by scrolling through photo selections on an iPad, so no worries about the language barrier. Second, the sushi ROCKS. Third, you may be there when the woman I should have proposed to on the spot was the lead sushi chef for the evening. Here's what happened to us at Chojiro:
We're having this outstanding meal, chattering away in English – me, Steve, Priss and Keith – eating, drinking, blissing out. After awhile, this beautiful woman working behind the counter leaned over and in flawless English, said hello, noted that we seemed to be having a good time, where are you from, yada, yada. I was smitten.
Then she asked us if we'd like to try something special, some fresh mackerel. We didn't even ask what the price was. Bring it, sister.
Behind the main bar, there's a tank of live fish. One of the sushi preparers pulled a mackerel out of that tank and in a couple of minutes, that fish was on the table in front of us. See the photo below.
Its gills were still moving.
We polished off the individual pieces, they took the platter back, deep-fried the head, tail, bones, returned it all to the table. And we polished that off, too. The entire fish, gone. Effing unbelievable.
I still tear up at the memory of that meal. BEST. SUSHI. EVER. And here's the punchline: that mackerel cost us 900 yen, about nine dollars. Nine dollars. In Los Angeles, they take your car keys for something that good.
What a day.
To be continued. |
