Yeah, I blogged it!

Last night (Tuesday) we had dinner with the language instructors, all American except for one Japanese guy.  It was kind of a little slice of home since everyone was speaking English and using utinsils.  We went to a Japenese-French restaurant that was REALLY good!  It was another set menu so no awkward ordering   Once the beer and wine was poured, we were set to begin.  The food was fantastic!  The mushroom soup was incredible and the Kobe Beef was oh so delicious!

Then we went to Sugimoto’s.  This is a local dive bar that apparently the JCMU staff and participants frequent and have for years.  We parked the car and the ally next to the place is filled with car parts, tools, junk, etc.  I was already nervous.  Then we walked in.  The place is very small and smelled a little like motor oil and feet.  And older guy, about 60ish I’d say shuffled out from the kitchen.  Everyone greeted him and he was very excited to see people from JCMU because apparently they don’t come around much anymore.  The place has another room behind a curtain and that night there was a group of captains from the local sports teams and they were mostly hammered by the time we got there.  These kids were probably late high school at best.  A couple of them came out to chat and were shitfaced.  One was a golfer and is apparently quite good, the other was kind of translating because his English was better.

The one guy with us, Dave, who’s SO into country music that I don’t think any comment he was without a reference to some song.  He wanted to know if the CD he’d brought five years ago was still there.  Sugimoto dug out a few boxes and found it and much to our disappointment, Dave started singing along.  Then boxes of pictures and business cards came out and everyone pawed through them.  Fortunately, there was also beer brought out so at least those of us (me) that no idea what was going on could enjoy himself as well

Apparently, there was only a dirt floor in the kitchen until recently.  Since I knew that going in, I obviously scoped out the kitchen as soon as we walked in.  Since the place smelled like, as I said, motor oil and feet, my first reaction when we walked in was that the kitchen is actually set up in a repair garage!  There were some free-standing burners and the whole place just looked dirty.  Which was honestly made even funny by the enthusiasm Dawn showed by going in there and seeing him.  She’s just not the type to slum it really.

So the way this place works, is the beer and pop is in a cooler in the other room and you just help yourself and pay at the end.  So we were sitting around drinking beer and having a good time and getting more beer when needed.  Then his wife brings out some French fries, some edamame, and some weird shrimp chips, that at first I thought were pork rinds.  They were definitely interesting, but probably not something I’d seek out and make a point of buying.

After a couple hours there we headed back to the center which I was happy about since despite being a lot of fun, I was very tired.  So far, no hangovers, which I’m happy about since that just makes the next day a REAL drag.

The project is going well so far, but I may end up taking it in a different direction, depending on needs.  More updates to follow.

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