Thanksgiving (Sort of)

By coincidence, on Thanksgiving the family had a huge meal with about 6 guests over. We were 14 people...perfect Thanksgiving size. No turkey or mashed potatoes, but instead we had a major nabe meal. Nabe is great. I want to buy one in America. It's a big hot pot of lightly flavored broth that you use to cooking anything you want, right at the table. Plates full of shrimp, oysters, scallops, fish, chicken, beef, veggies, and tofu went in bit by bit until we were all stuffed. Each bit of food was dunked into a variety of dressings. Soy sauce, a creamy sesame dressing, and raw egg was provided. Afterwards we used the broth in the nabe to make a soup. It's such a great community feeling to eat out of this giant hotpot. The family has done the same thing with beef and veggies on a hot plate in the middle of the table. I love the idea and will be bringing back to America.

Thanksgiving Spread

"Carving the Turkey"

Thanks Mom! For some reason the cakes mailed across the Pacific tasted the best.

"Doumo Arigatou!" From the guests

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Assault of the Shellfish

I have to repeat the fact that my host family is ridiculous. I think I had the fortune of getting placed with the most eccentric family possible and I'm loving every minute of it. It's such a nice surprise when you get home at 5:30 and at 6:00 you get the surprise "Yuugohan...saki ni ikkou!" an hour before you expect to eat. That usually means there is some ridiculous meal in store for you at some restaurant. The best part is the amusement the family gets when the gaijin downs some strange type of animal part, smiles, and says "oishii" (delicious). In the twenty years they have been hosting internationals, I'm the only one that likes raw eggs, uni, and natto. Host father cant believe the only thing I don't like is Mayo.

We went to a sushi restaurant that is famous for its crab and shellfish. Crabs are brought in live everyday and cooked on the spot...whole. King Crab legs...no way, we get the whole sucker. All of the crab was caught off the coast of Hokkaido, which makes sense because thats relatively close to Alaska for all you "Dangerous Catch" watchers. On top of a King Crab and some other smaller crab, we also got shrimp, uni, and a sashimi platter. The sashimi platter was kind of dull, this looked like a sushi-ya on the outside but really was a shellfish restaurant. The shrimp were the best I ever had. They were melt in your mouth good and since they had the heads on I was instructed to make sure to suck out all the brains and organs which I gladly did. They tasted briny, different, but delicious. Japanese people love shellfish organs. THe "miso" or brain of the crab was divided up. THe second to last picture is my portion of the crab brain. It had the same flavor as the shrimp. For an American, it was definitely an odd flavor, but I can see how the Japanese love it. I'll probably grow used to it in time. The shellfish was served with a mixture of rice wine vinegar, mirin, and sugar. (see background of first picture) Uni was probably the only thing that did not come into the restaurant still kicking but everything else absoultely was. Tremendous seafood meal that proves that you don't need to serve everything with butter to taste good.