Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland and Other Dining Experiences

I had a couple of interesting dining experiences with my new Australian friend, Blair. Thursday night we hit a couple of typical Japanese restraunts while Liz was finishing up with castings after her job. Basically we just wandered around Roppongi until we saw something interesting. We ended up finding these two little hole in the wall authentic restraunts. At the first, we tried sake. It's a typical Japanese drink, sort of like weak vodka. The server poured it into special glasses in front of us until it spilled over the top and rested in a small dish underneath the strange vessel. It was all very bizarre. Apparently, the overflow is costomary as a show of appreciation to guests for their business. Blair and I were happy to be appreciated, but had a hard time figuring out how to drink the overflow. I just poured mine back into the cup and called it a day. As for eating, we had a bunch of small appetizers such as bacon wrapped asparagus, pork belly and potato, chicken meatball things, and shitake mushrooms.  Delicious! The portions were very small, so after the first place we searched for another. The next place was much the same but this time we had some salad and corn soup with more bacon covered asparagus. I also tried some awesome kiwi beverage. Again, delicious!

 Friday night, Blair took me to an Alice in Wonderland themed restaurant. It was amazing! Giant playing cards decked out the walls and all of the servers were in costume. A mirrored corridor lead us to a seating area with a giant teacup. We didn't get to sit in the teacup, but it was still pretty fantastic. Our waitress sang us some songs from the movie and every dish had something to do with the fairy tale story. "Eat Me" and "Drink Me" signs were everywhere.  It was very fun and adorable. One of my drinks was shaped like the Cheshire Cat!

 This is apparently the Cheshire Cat...
(that's a green cherry)

 This is the drink menu!

Overall it was a very fun night and I'm glad to have experienced some interesting Japanese dining experiences!

The Snowstorm
Well the gigantic snowstorm didn't really affect the Minnesota girls. Apparently is was the worst one here in two decades! Liz and her friend had some fun building snowmen and we all had a different view of the city in the snow.

Roppongi Hills

Liz, Olivia, and I went shopping is a giant complex called Roppongi Hills. It's ridiculously complicated and also very high end so we ended up getting lost and feeling poor the whole time. The architecture of some of the complex was interesting and now I know where to go for an English theatre. All the movies are about a year behind those released in America, but I think it'll still be fun to see a movie I didn't previously see on the big screen. On the way there today, Liz and I saw three people with paper bags on their heads. WHAT?!? I still have no idea why. They were dressed completely normally and going about their business like nothing was different. It's some sort of Japanese holiday today, so maybe that has something to do with it? Bizarre. You know what else is bizarre? The giant spider stature in the middle of the mall complex. 

Liz and I went to dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe tonight. She had chicken strips and I had a burger. It wasn't nearly as good at T.G.I. Friday's, but it was pretty cool to see the inside. Liz has been to a Hard Rock in three different countries! It was a cool experience and everybody there was very kind. On the wall was a row of cameras showing the view from Hard Rock Cafe's around the world. We thought it was especially awesome until we realized that it wasn't a live feed. Still a good concept overall, though. On the way to dinner, we caught a glimpse of the Tokyo Tower. One day soon Liz and I will travel to it to explore and see the sights.

Liz and I are headed to Osaka tomorrow on the bullet train! I look forward to seeing a different side of Japan. I'll try to keep you updated!