My classmate Julie and I decided to get together for dinner one night at an okonomiyaki restaurant that we has seen. I let my host family know that I would be out and met Julie at the local Aeon shopping mall where she was buying a extra suitcase to haul back her purchases.

We walked past the restaurant on the way back to Julie’s dorm to drop off her suitcase and there was lots of room. When we returned a little while later however there was a lineup out the door and we were told to expect an hour’s wait. We decided to bail and walked down the street to another restaurant Kiraku that I had been to with my host family.

Kiraku is fairly small and has a kind of Mom and Pop’s Diner feel to it.  It is attached to a meat shop that provides all of the fresh ingrediants to the restaurant. We had a look at the menu and decided to try the sukiyaki which proved to be a great choice.

Sukiyaki

Sukiyaki is a hot pot with noodles, tofu, veggeis and beef. You cook it at your table in an shallow iron pot full of broth over a small gas burner. You pick the cooked food out of the simmering broth and dip it in a bowl of raw egg before eating it. Yummy, especially with beer.

It was a very enjoyable meal and we were stuffed after dinner.