2026 Japan: Dinners (II)

 The second "kind" of dinners we had were specific restaurants.

One night we had dinner at a Tempura restaurant:

Available condiments were pickled daikon radish and pickled squid.  The pickled squid was...interesting...but not a favorite.

I can understand that some might think we had a lot of beer.  We did have one with a great many dinners.  Frankly, there is no beer so good as a beer after training, and Japanese beers tend to be light.

A paper, hand-written sign advertising the offerings of the restaurant.  This is very traditionally Japanese.

Rice, dipping sauce, and the first tempura offering.  Instead of coming out on a plate, the tempura items were brought individually as they were completed.

Ebi (Shrimp):

Vegetables and fish.  The one on the right is Japanese Pumpkin, which I have never had before.  The item in the small bowl is a tempura egg, almost like a soft boiled egg in tempura.

I have no idea.  It was good though.

Whitefish:

Another night we had dinner at a restaurant serving unagi (Freshwater Eel), a shop not too far from our hotel on a very narrow street. If you did not know (or have an App), as a tourist you would never have known it was there.

The kamidana, or small altar to the kami:

Opener: Salad, lotus roots (and beer, of course):

Pickles.  A small serving of these is often provided at many meals:

Soup:

The main course (in its presentation box):

And open!  Unagi over rice:

Another night, The Ravishing Mrs. TB and I went to a sushi restaurant.  I cannot name all of the sushi below, but at about $20, it was a deal (and delicious!).

Another night we went to a Tonkatsu (Friend pork cutlet) restaurant.  A starting dish (it happened more than once) was cabbage.  This could be refilled as many times as you would like (sadly, not true for the beer):

I had already eaten a pretty big meal before, so I had a small two stick tonkatsu with a side of edamame (steamed soybeans).  The bowl on the left is for grinding spices for the katsu sauce.

The front of the restaurant, showing their offerings: