New Culinary Treats!

So today John and I went off base and spent a majority of the day walking around the town of Yokosuka. We ate lunch and dinner out. We also explored many of the shopping malls. One mall even had a thrift store inside, selling clothes for about $8.00 a piece.

Below are some of the pictures I took during our day:



This is Pepper Lunch. It's a little eatery that's done Japanese stlye. When you enter, you go to the vending machine (pictured above) and pick out your entree, drink, and any sides. You get a ticket for each item you chose. The tickets are very tiny and unimpressive. You take the tiny tickets to the bar and lay them out side by side. A server comes and collects your tickets, brings you your drink and any sides. The vending machine is easy to use because it's mainly pictures and a few English phrases.

As you wait for your entree and eat your sides, you can read how to prepare your entree when it arrives at your spot at the bar. It advises at the top for you to pour the sauce last or it will burn when the sizzling plate comes out.

When the entree comes out, it is entirely raw. The plate is incredibly hot and sizzling. You cook the meat and veggies on the plate. The plate is so hot and the meat is such a thin cut that it cooks very fast. In about five minutes, you have to put the meat on top of the veggies to prevent them from overcooking. Then, one it's done ETADAKIMASTA! Or bon appetite!

After Pepper Lunch, John and I went to get some tea at a local mall. It's suprising how hard it is to find green tea considering it's served in households Japan-wide. We thought we were ordering green tea, but instead it was green herb tea (herbs that are green and are in tea) not green tea. It was a mint tea and we each got a whole teapot full (which is apparently how it's done). It was delicious.

After that we walked around a 7 story shopping mall and a 9 story shopping mall. This took us until about dinner time as we took our time at each store, marveling over the items and prices. We found a used designer purse store, watch shops, and any number of Japanese fashion stores. After this we decided to eat a quick dinner and what's quicker than McDonalds?

At McDonalds, I had the teriyaki burger (only one patty) fries and a drink. John had the Big Mac meal. I normally wouldn't mention a stop at McDonald's, but I have to this time. Firstly, the meat was extremely good quality and you could tell it was never frozen and grilled fresh. The medium sized drink and fries were actually medium sized, not large or tub sized. The drink was about the size of a tall coffee from Starbucks and the fries were not greasy, overly salted, and came in a container I would actually classify as medium.

Which brings me to another point that portion sizes in Japan are very small....at least small compared to what we might get in the US. Some restaurants do have a large sized option for those of us who might not be used to the idea that a serving size is only a cup of rice instead of a bowl filled with rice. It's nice and it's suprising how much you need to fill you up without making you feel ill because you ate so much.

Sorry if this post is a little broken. It's been a full day of walking and biking nonstop. It's also hot and humid outside. It was a beautiful day today. However, the airconditioning here is no where near as cold as what I'm used to in the US. So, you just kind of stay hot and sweaty all day. At the end of the day, I could feel myself getting cranky. I'm a little better now, but I'm doing laundry so that's no fun.....

Time to lay down and watch some TV to relax for a little bit. I can't wait to move into our beautiful new house....can't do that until the end of the month or later, but at least I can look forward to it.