A stay at Akasaka in central Tokyo

This weekend for Heathers birthday we stayed in the Akasaka area of central Tokyo where we had dinner with our good friend Takahira and his wife at Lawery's Prime Rib.
Its a bit upscale and dinner was great and we would definitely recommend you visit for a great meal or special occasion. As the name implies their specialty is Prime Rib, but they have a full menu and the food and service is all very good.
Not a lot of pictures as we really didn't do a lot of sightseeing and just visited a few bars to celebrate Heathers birthday. We visited Omotesando for some shopping before returning on Sunday. For lunch we found our way to one of Tokyos BKs in the stop at Kanda which was fantastic. I know your thinking "BK" whats the big deal? Trust me after 2 years of Hamburger Steki, even the occaisional whopper moment is golden, as is evident by the pile of empty wrappers in front of the birthday girl.
To all the Smorkers out there we would like to point out that after all of these years they have officially banned Smorking on Takeshita St. in Harajuku. Beautiful.

Sports weekend............

Last weekend we again caught some local sporting events by going to a Tochigi Brex basketball game Friday night and a Nikko Icebucks game on Sunday afternoon.
The Brex who are have now moved from the JBL2 to the top level JBL league won handily over Osaka Panasonic 91-73. This year they have 3 American players on the roster and probably what is Japans premier and only Japanese player to get drafted to NBA team Yuta Tabuse, who really had some excellent skills.
Sunday brought the last home game of the year for the Nikko Icebucks. Its been another long season for the Icebucks even with the addition of the Canadian players. However we weren't disappointed as we finally got to see them win a game, and win it quite handily at 5-3. Good to see them give their rabid fans a victory to finish out the year.
Whether you live in Utsunomiya or just visit on business you really should try to get out and see these teams play if they are in town, you would probably enjoy it.

Not sure what this was...........

Heather and I drove down to Omiya/Saitamashintoshin on Sunday for some shopping and a Kua' Aina cheeseburger fix. In the station at Saitamashintoshin, we encountered this thing.
Not sure what it was, but it sure was creepy as hell and damn good at scaring children. If anyone could identify it, please let us know.

Smoking Manners

Japan like America is struggling with the right to smoke issue.
In an effort to improve the public image of smoking, over the years Japan Tobacco has created several public service announcements and posted them on public ashtrays, in smoking areas etc. This happens to be one of our personal favorites. The funny(or disturbing part) is that the sign doesn't tell you not to put the cigarette in the kids eye. It just says that's where you carry it. And the helicopter? Not really sure what the relevance of that is. Anyhow these have been around for a couple of years, and there are about 70 or so of them in the series. Take a look at Japan tobaccos website to see the rest, some are pretty intriguing. http://www.jti.co.jp/sstyle/manners/ad/gallery/index.html

RecipeZaar Chef Of The Day!

Heather is truly a celebrity! She is the RecipeZaar Chef Of The Day January 2nd 2009! We're not real sure how she acheived this prestigious award in the world of online recipe trading, but hey heres the proof!

http://www.recipezaar.com/

謹賀新年 Happy New Year to all!

あけましておめでとうございます! This year we stayed in Utsunomiya for New Years Eve.We had dinner at "Chanko" which is a chain of restaurants founded by the famous sumo wrestler Wakanohana. Great traditional Japanese menu of things that a sumo would eat on a daily basis to get big and fat, so of course we were right at home. Most of the businesses including bars and restaurants in Japan roll up the carpets for Oshōgatsu which is by far the largest and traditionally celebrated holiday of the year. After dinner we rang in the new year at a local pub and then went for a few hours of Karaoke. After finally becoming obviously out of our minds from alcohol consumption we even managed to stagger onto the dance floor at Birdland for a bit. All in all a fantastic evening/morning and no better way to bring in the new year with the traditional Jan 1headache. Everyone have a wonderful new year!
Lots of other December 2008 photos here!
Here's a link to Wakanohana's Chanko restaurant if you want to try some good traditional Japanese food. Reservations are a must.
http://www.chanko-waka.jp/store/utsunomiya/index.html