My first real Japanese meal

This restaurant was everything you imagine when you think of such a place in Japan. You enter and have to take your shoes off at the door. We store them in a tiny locker. We are escorted down a hall where you can see many small sectioned off eating areas. Our table is in the far back. The table is nearly on what looks like the floor so I sit down and you put your legs under the table into a big hole where everyone's legs fit. There are four of us and we scour the menu front to back (or in Japan's case, back to front!).

Each of us pick something different. Luke went with the house special, a pork loin. I chose the Japanese noodle plate. when my tray arrives I am astounded. There is soo much food on this plate. It almost looks like too much. The noodles and their sauce in a separate bowl, a tiny salad in its own bowl, a plate of tempura (vegitables which are breaded and fried) and their separate sauce, sashimi (like sushi but just a bit of rice with the fish laying on top) and a plate to mix the soy and wasabi (Japanese horseradish)! Amazingly I was able to eat it all. Despite how much food appeared to be on the tray the food its self is so light that you don't feel stuffed by the time you are done eating. I think I will really enjoy that about Japanese food.

My favorite thing I ate at this meal is definitely the pumpkin tempura. There were five different kinds of tempura on my plate but the pumpkin was amazing! The skin was green, unlike the orange of American pumpkin, and the breading and sauce I dipped it into really enhanced the natural sweetness of the pumpkin flesh. I will be having that again for sure!