Although, the topic of this post might be interpreted as being poetic, in reality it is, well, not so much, as you will discover.
Had some coffee with Kaoru, who I randomly met in a Persian restaurant during lunch in a neighbourhood called yanaka (谷中）. She, her friend, three of my classmates and I met up at to have some coffee. We had a great time and moreover it was culturally and linguistically correct as we spoke (or attempted to speak) japanese constantly. It was a lot of fun and although our conversations were limited by the language, it was nice to meet up with some of Tokyo's locals. As it was saturday, all the coffee shops were extremely crowded, even in the low-key neighbourhood where Kaoru took us. We finally managed to get a table in the open-air, which in spring is nice but in winter maybe a bit too adventurous.
Around 5pm we said goodbye to Kaoru and her friend and went on to have a very interesting meal. You see, after our early morning adventure at tsukiji during this week, Suzuki-san invited the whole group to come to his sushi restaurant near Tameikesanoo station to have a good meal. He made a special deal with us that he would make some of his specialties for a fixed, student friendly price.
What unfolded upon the table was above anyone's expectations, in a (mostly) positive way (this addition of 'mostly' will become clear soon).
First, to ease us into the meal, Suzuki-san served French cheese, carpaccio to start out with. But then a genuine fash carnaval began, and it started with a bang: the first specialty that arrived was braised tuna head.
And thus; one whole tuna head lay on the table. Suzuki-san told us this was a very expensive special dish that was hard to come by. The flavour was very good but there was one catch: aside from some nice tender 'foreigner-friendly' tuna meat, we all got a large portion of braised tuna-eye. Yes, tuna eye stew. You can imagine that getting accostumed to the feeling and texture of eating a cornea or optic nerve is somewhat challenging. Oh well, another meal to put on the list of guess-what-I-ate. Finally, everyone stood tall and ate their portion, so our culture-barbarian-gauge has dropped somewhat and for that I am happy.
And from then onwards, it was sushi paradise once again, It's unbelievable how Suzuki-san went out of his way to make this amazing meal, and such an amazing amount that he must have spent the whole day for us.
Afterwards he let a few of us 'wield' the sword he uses to prepare his maguro (see photo). And then, after our last tea, we gave suzuki-san a self made present containing a photo of suzuki-san and us, and some stroop-waffles, and some drop (licorice). I guess drop to him might be close to what tuna eye is to us ^_^. Thank you Suzuki-san!
It's a bird, It's a plane, no....it's the head of a tuna
Samurai Sjors-san
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