Today was a national holiday – I’m not sure which one and the internet is telling me it is National Foundation Day… so your guess is as good as mine. =) What this means is we got the day off work! Hello, 3 day week… followed by a 1 day week. At least, that’s how I’m looking at it.
We ended up going back to Yokohama to hit up Takashimaya, the department store that we were too late to visit on the weekend. Of course it being a few days from Valentine’s Day, the chocolate fairs were in full force and the battling ladies were vicious. I had to carry Layla just so she wouldn’t be trampled! After checking out a few of the stands, sampling a few wares and seeing a lot of the same things we saw a few days ago, Layla said in no uncertain terms she was hungry.
Luckily, in Japan food is never far away. The department store has a floor dedicated to restaurants and, fortuitously, we were on it. We headed over to see what there was and find something to eat. There was plenty of choice, from Italian to Chinese to Japanese. We passed by a sukiyaki shop as we looked around and for whatever reason, Layla got it in her head that that’s what she wanted. Who am I to argue with her? We looked at everything else, even the steak place offering up Kobe beef, but in the end Layla won out… to the victor goes the spoils, and sukiyaki was the prize.
Once we were at our seats we were given menus and some time to make up our minds… tough choice – did we want meat, cheap meat, or expensive meat? We went with meat. And a beer.
The waitress quickly brought us our food and drinks and surprisingly, prepared our meal for us. She beat our egg, cooked our meat and vegetables, served us and even cleaned up our mess afterwards. One thing this country does right is service — she even offered to blow on it when it was too hot for Layla! Okay, she didn’t do that, but the rest of it she happily did. Can you believe we don’t even tip after that great service?
After eating, we did a bit of shopping before heading back home. A quick stop at the grocery store to buy dinner for the 1 day work-week and then we were home and putting the kid to bed.
All in all, a great way to spend a rainy day.
Gallery found here:
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