This post is half rant and half culture shock. Being that Japan's workforce is mostly male, they go out for tsukiai and settai. Both include drinking and eating.
Most times tsukiai is amongst co-workers or friends, kind of like "pau hana time" (happy hour) in Hawaii.
Settai is when you take a client out for drinks. Sometimes settai includes taking client out to raunchy areas for their "pleasure".
Can you imagine that most men do not eat at home on the weekdays? For me, I'm okay if Satoshi eats out during the week, saves me time in making something for dinner, but the part that kills me is the "last minute" gathering. These usually include no phone call. Thank goodness, I'm not waiting for him to come home to eat with me...some wives actually do! Can you imagine waiting until 11 p.m. or later to eat dinner and then finding out that your husband ate out already?
The thing that I don't understand is why the men and women here drink to the point where they cannot walk. Maybe it is because we have public transportation like trains? They don't have to worry about driving a car to get home? I've seen people stagger, then throw up all around the place...not pretty. (sorry if you were eating while reading this...)
People fall asleep on the train. Miss their stops. Catching a train late at night smells like a brewery. Everyone's faces are red from the alcohol. Plus, the trains are packed, everyone trying to make it home before the trains stop. I think that this is the time when chikan (molesting/fondling) occurs. When you are packed liked sardines, have alcohol in you, it is bound to happen...sigh.
Having a hangover the next day cannot possibly be too productive for you at work.
So, the other night, Satoshi had a welcome party for some of his new staff. I went to bed before he came home, but wasn't "fully sleeping"--sub-conciously I was waiting for him to come home.
At about 1 a.m. I woke up and realized he hadn't come home yet. The trains stop at around this time, so the only way to come home would be by taxi.
Finally, at about 1:30 a.m. I hear a car pull up. Someone staggering up the stairs. It was Satoshi.
This is what he told me the next morning...He fell asleep on the train, missed his stop and had to catch a taxi home. But, he didn't have enough money to pay his fare, (the price of the taxi goes up after a certain time), so he had to come up, look for some money then go back down to pay.
(You should know that when he lived at his parent's house in Kyoto before we were married, he once overslept his stop and found himself at the end of the line in Shiga prefecture! I guess that would be like needing to get off in New Jersey from Manhattan but finding yourself in Washington D.C....or something like that.)
Anyway, he was in the midst of changing his clothes...then fell asleep on the floor. Lights on. I know this because I got up because the lights were on, turned the lights off and then shut the door.
Why did I shut the door? Satoshi's snoring, especially after drinking is so loud, you can hear it even with a walkman on...trust me, I still use my walkman to try to drain out the snoring, but can still hear it! He said I should just get used to his snoring, to think of it as BGM (background music), I call it more like BGN (background noise)...sigh.
So, the next morning, he complained of a headache, loss of appetite...he smelled like a brewery...blah!
I shook my head and let him suffer with his hangover. Even if it is for his company, even if it is for communication purposes. To drink yourself to the point where you are sick, is kind of...well, stupid!
I guess it is part of the culture I will never understand.
While I'm on the subject of culture shock...I never realized how fast pre-fab houses can go up.
At 15:45, I checked on the progress of the house building
next door. They had the wall frames up and were working on the 3rd floor.
In the meantime, I made dinner (loco moco) and we ate at about 16:30 (early) because Satoshi had his German class.
At 17:30, I checked on them again because it was quiet. They already had the roof up. Scarily too fast...
This post is half rant and half culture shock. Being that Japan's workforce is mostly male, they go out for tsukiai and settai. Both include drinking and eating.
At 15:45, I checked on the progress of the house building next door. They had the wall frames up and were working on the 3rd floor.
In the meantime, I made dinner (loco moco) and we ate at about 16:30 (early) because Satoshi had his German class.
At 17:30, I checked on them again because it was quiet. They already had the roof up. Scarily too fast...
Yesterday was the last day of a 3-day event called "Aloha Festival in Osaka", which was held in the courtyard of the Umeda Sky Building. The Umeda Sky Building has a garden area at the top called Kuchuteien, where you can see other buildings for miles on a nice day. (For some reason all the Japanese get excited about the view, but I can't seem to get excited over seeing miles and miles of buildings.) Holding up the garden are two towers which hold offices and other businesses. (Satoshi's German class is in one of the towers. )
So, I met Satoshi after his German class and we were excited to see something rare...the lunch wagons. The one on the left called Funky's and was serving hot dogs and nachos.
We bought their nachos with "real" fake cheese and salsa (350 yen = about $3.50). There was also another vendor selling Kona Brewing Company's Longboard Island Lager, Fire Rock Pale Ale and 
The one on the right was called Yammy's (I wonder if they meant to call themselves Yummy's?) and was serving Loco Moco & Taco Rice. We stood in line for the Loco Moco & Taco Rice. After about 20 minutes we were able to get our food.
Here is Satoshi's order: Loco Moco (600 yen = about US$6). The gravy wasn't the authentic brown gravy, in fact, he didn't think it was gravy at all. He has decided that the only place to eat a loco moco is in Hawaii.
Here is my order: Taco Rice (600 yen = about US$6). Taco Rice is an Okinawan dish that was influenced by the American military there. I thought this was pretty close to the type of taco meat filling we have in the U.S. There were other booths there selling food but they were mostly hot dogs or curry.
There was lots of entertainment.
Lots of hula halau (hula groups) and ukulele players practicing before their chance to perform.
This group was waiting for their turn.
And even a shave ice stand...though it wasn't the same as Matsumoto's...I didn't get one but I don't think you could order a rainbow either....
but there were TONS of people! We went to the German Christmas Market a couple of times that was held in this same courtyard and the amount of people was nothing compared to what we saw today.
Friday, with all the changes going on in Waikiki, Satoshi was curious to see what was happening. We walked from Hilton Hawaiian Village ALL the way to the end of Waikiki. A majority of hotels are going under renovations and along with these renovations are the property name changes. Boy, I can't even keep them straight! Anyway, while walking through Waikiki I saw this group of people having a surf lesson. (Hang ten!)
And people gazing at the ocean. (You know, I miss not having benches to rest on in Japan--they are obsolete!)
I was surprised to find out that they serve all of their menu items all day. We started off with some seared ahi (tuna), this tuna is coated with togarashi(chili) and sesame seeds. And served with a wasabi(japanese horseradish)-ginger aioli. They used to use a cajun spice on the outside of the ahi, but this version was still very tasty.
Fried calamari with a black bean aioli and a chili cucumber salad. This version was very light, previously they had a tex-mex flavor to it.
French onion soup--rich broth, cheese and onions...how can you go wrong?
Romaine lettuce with maytag blue cheese crumbles, slivered almonds and egg--crunchy goodness.
Saturday, Satoshi had to leave to go back for work. So, for breakfast, we hunted out one of his favorites...loco moco.
Satoshi couldn't decide between loco moco and eggs benedict (another of his favorites)...so he ordered both! Both servings were huge, as usual. The eggs for the benedict weren't runny, so he was a bit disappointed, but said that everything was delicious still the same.
I ordered the chocolate chip short stack with eggs and bacon. The pancakes were light and fluffy and had LOTS of chocolate chips inside.
The bacon could have been a bit crispier, but went well with maple syrup on them.