My first full day in Japan started with coffee. Perfect! I hung out with Ricardo and baby Rickey for a bit until Brady woke up. It was a very mellow morning even though some-one can’t keep his eyes open for too long. Eating is exhausting.
Ricardo gave me a ride to the station and I took the train to Yokosuka via Yokohama. I was on my way to meet my friend Kazu-san for lunch. I was very excited that it had worked out with his work schedule. He is a friend of mine from Naval Hospital Yokosuka and even though it had been a few years, it was important for me to see him.
We had a wonderful lunch at Hananoya (花野家), a French restaurant that is very special and delicious. The set lunch consisted of a vegetable terrine, squid ink bread, chilled carrot soup, a main, and panne cotta. The four options for the main were chicken, sea bream, beef cheeks, and lobster. I had the sea bream and it was beautifully cooked with a crisp skin.
Even better than the food was the conversation. Kazu-san is a citizen of the world and it is so cool to hear about his life and thoughts on different subjects. I feel very lucky to have met such a good person and be able to keep in touch, even if it is sporadic. I am really hoping in a few years that his son stays with SMS and I during a Summer as an exchange student. That would be so much fun and we would show him all the cool things in the Bay Area. Kazu’s son is interested in science and math, so it would be a perfect place. And SMS would have a new person to go with to the Computer History Museum.
After a leisurely lunch (with wine! Kazu-san had the afternoon off), I headed to Ebina where Brady and I met for a quick coffee and shared pancake at Latte Graphic, located within Uniqlo. It was a delicious snack, followed by some shopping. I bought the most jolie laide short-sleeve pajama set that I’m pretty sure I will also use as an outfit to a tropical party. There is photographic evidence but I’m not willing to share. Yet.
After our snack, it was time for baby Rickey to eat followed by watching Ricardo’s softball game. It was a pretty good game apart from one soul-crushing inning (did you know the scoreboard can only indicate 9 runs in an inning? It can’t handle double digits). Softball, BTW, is an intense sport within military intramurals. It is not a game. It is the Thunderdome.
After the game, we headed back to Ebina for dinner. We tried to go to a delicious gyoza place but it was full. So, we at a Korean restaurant instead where the spicy level was up! Ricardo was very happy since that’s an unusual find in the Japanese culinary scene. I also placed an order for takeaway gyoza since Brady and Ricardo had hyped them up so much. They were not wrong. Deliciousness in a little dough-y wrapper!