The Ninja Dining Experience

While I was in Tokyo, I stopped by Ninja Akasaka for dinner. Located in the shopping center across the street from the Akasaka-Mitsuke station. Ninja Akasaka is a Ninja themed restaraunt, where getting to your table is an interesting experience in itself. Imagine first approaching the restaurant, you are approached by a nicely dressed host/hostess who then summens a ninja that comes swingout out of the top 1/2 of a 2 part door. That ninja then leads you through a series of passages where you are ducking under low beams, climbing up onto platforms, and saying secret keywords to open passages.



Once at the table, we were given a secret code word for our table. This is in the event you get lost inside the restaurant. This can easily happen given all the passages you had to go through to get to your table and the dark setting. Then we were greeted by our cute ninja waitress, Kohana.



The food there is a bit pricy, but it makes up for it in spades with its presentation. Here's a quick and dirty picture dump of the food. Some of the items I liked were: the Escargo Turben Shell bombs where the waitess lit a fuse and it cooks in a flash of flames in front of your very eyes; the crab and grapefruite appetizer served on a sword with smoke coming out of the grapefruit; and the bosai tree shaped ice cream.



At the end of the dinner, you get a nice magic show with a talented ninja (magician). (Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of this)

Otaru

During my Trip to Japan I was able to make a day-trip to see Otaru.


Otaru is a town just about 30 min. train ride north-west of Sapporo. It's one of the oldest European style towns in Japan. It is known for it's very beautiful canals lined with old European style buildings made of stone bricks.



It is also one of the best places you can enjoy Sushi in Japan. There's one a section called Sushiyadori street that is filled with Sushi restaurants. The cold waters of Otaru makes the fish there extra tasty. The sushi there has a very deep color and a more fatty texture.



Otaru is also known for its glass crafts. If you know Japanese, you can pay to have someone guide you through the glass making process to make a glass vase hands on. Also check out the steam clock while you're there.

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (Snow Fesitval)

This year I attended the 60th anniversary of the Sapporo Yuki Matsuri (Snow Festival). Each year, generally around the first week of February (for future dates, you'll want to check here http://www.snowfes.com/english/ next winter), Sapporo hosts it's annual Yuki Matsuri.

I was able to see the sites in Oodori Park and Susukino. In Oodori park, a park which streches around 10 city blocks, you'll see a variety of snow sculptures. There are smaller man sized snow sculptures on the other parts of the park, and as you get closer to Oodori station, you'll see large magnificent structures such as the 1/8th scale Osaka Castle and the large Disney Display.




At night the large snow scupltures are lighted and night time concerts are performed on the stages of some of the large snow sculptures.



There also a variety of food stands in the Odori park site offering a wide selection of good eats. I especially loved the fresh grilled sea food.



In Susukino, you'll find a lot of the ice carvings. This site is fairly small, about 2 or 3 city blocks long along the center of the street. But the ice carvings are very detailed and look like crystals under the night time city lights. Susukino being where the night life in Sapporo lives, you can also enjoy some good Ramen at the Ramen Yokocho and have a drink at one of the many bars in this part of town.



There is a 3rd site which I didn't get a chance to see. It's suppose to be mostly composed of more fun activities such as mazes, slides, and various igloos housing different stores and good eats.

Weekend @ the Long Beach Motorcycle Show

Not much new at the Long Beach Motorcycle show to announce. There were a several brands featuring their bikes in riding demos. Unfortunately I got there too late and was only able to test ride the Can-am Spyder.

A weekend of Alcohol tasting.

Beer tasting @ the Firestone Brewery in Beulton.



Wine Tasting in Paso Robles

SCKF Kendo Shinsa

Our dojo attended the SCKF shinsa last weekend. I passed the exam and now 1-kyu rank. Just 1 rank away from getting my blackbelt.
Updated: My friend got a video of one of my matches. I'm in the blue uniform. This is my first of 2 matches

Pirate Days

Recently did pirate days in Catalina. Been pretty lazy since the trip as I've been catching up on my work both my work work and my homework. I'll post some pics later.

What I like about Catalina's pirate days is it's a total immersion. You pretty much have a whole pirate day, not just a couple hours in a park with people dressed like pirates and go home like you would at a Renaissance fair.

Update: Posted pics


For the last 3 years we've been running the Hoosegow tug of war games since the kids activities have been scaled down.



At night it's time for the grown up pirates to party.



Captain Morgan @ the costume contest.



Other well dressed pirates