I spent most of Monday in the air to Tokyo (13 hours). The flight was smooth, I watched a couple of movies and slept for about 6 hours. The first movie was “Eddie the Eagle” – a bit silly but I really enjoyed it. There’s a scene where his Dad asks not to be interrupted as he watches “It’s a Knockout”. This was a real trip down memory lane for me as I remember well watching that show and making a family trip to watch it live in Greenock (I think it was Greenock anyway). I laughed at Eddie’s comment that he was “a bit queasy” going down the 70m jump right before he attempted the 90m. This also reminded me of a family vacation in Austria where we visited the Innsbruck Olympic ski jump – I remember being shocked at the length and height. One of my colleagues in Japan is from England and we had a good time reliving the Eddie Olympics over dinner.
Lunch on the flight was duck with a curry sauce which was surprisingly good for an airline meal – I knew I was taking a bit of a risk with duck which can be very dry in the best of places. My afternoon movie was “London has Fallen” – an action drama about a terrorist attack when world leaders attend the funeral of the Prime Minister in London. Gerard Butler does his best James Bond act. A good airline movie but not as entertaining as Eddie the Eagle.
I read a good article in the New York Times on the plane about the actor Paul Giamatti (one of my favourites). His Dad was the Major League Baseball commissioner when he was growing up – which I did not know. Apparently Paul didn’t care for baseball growing up and still doesn’t really have much interest.
Tokyo arrival time was 2pm on Tuesday afternoon. Customs was quick and easy and I managed to get a nice afternoon swim in the hotel pool. I stayed at the Andaz which occupied the top 5 floors of the Toranomon Hills tower (a pretty swanky building in a nice part of Tokyo). The views from the pool/health club and the restaurant were great. The building that looks like the Eiffel tower is an old cell phone antenna tower.
Wednesday was a very busy day of back to back meetings and I sampled a LOT of excellent Japanese food. First was a massive bento lunch box with delicious selections of sushi and sashimi.
Dinner was a ridiculously good feast at a French style restaurant. We sat at a bar that was essentially a large hibachi grill and ordered the chef’s choice menu. This consisted of an amazing array of beautifully prepared and presented dishes. My favourites included the langoustine, foie gras stuffed burger, and the pistachio mousse desert. The mousse reminded me of the dessert at Lilette in New Orleans that Anne reshaped after taking a bite when I went to the restroom – also a pistachio mousse. The care that the Japanese chef put into the sauces and presentation was very impressive – all the more so as we were sitting watching everything he did.
On Thursday night a group of us had a traditional Japanese dinner – the kind where you take off your shoes and sit on the floor in your own partitioned room. Again lots of courses but nothing to compare to the excellent Wednesday night feast.
Thursday was also our friend Pride’s (175 lb Great Dane) birthday. Here he is being tortured in his 3 year old (legal drinking age for a dog) hat and tie.
I woke early on Friday, had a short workout and a nice feast from the hugely varied breakfast buffet before heading to the airport for the 11 hour flight back to Dallas. I thought about attending the Porsche meeting that I saw at the hotel. There was a tempting option as I got to the gate for the Dallas flight – right next door was a flight to Paris. The flight was a smooth 11 hours, arrived early and customs and the drive home were quick and painless.
Diana did a great job of making sure I didn’t nap too long on Friday afternoon and keeping me up until normal bedtime. This meant I didn’t really have too much jet lag over the weekend. On Friday night we watched the Olympic trials with a huge highlight being the Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte 200m medley race. It lived up to all the hype with a fantastic race and Phelps just edging Lochte.
There wasn’t much time for music this week. Some great saxophone jazz at the Andaz bar on Thursday night was about it. I did find that there’s a Blue Note jazz club in Tokyo that had some big names – will have to check it out if i ever make it back.
Alicia did have another “gig” on Saturday morning at the downtown McKinney farmers’ market. She did an excellent combination of flute pieces and guitar/singing and did very well with tips this time.
We watched the movie “Broadcast News” from 1987 on Saturday night. I’d forgotten how good it was. Holly Hunter, Aaron Brooks, and William Hurt are all excellent and look so young.
I finished “Shame” by Salman Rushdie this week. It was a very strange novel set in a country that is “not quite Pakistan”. I had read good reviews of the book but thought it was really just a bunch of nonsense with an interesting setting. I think the New York Times got it right with their review stating that – “It is probably easier to play croquet (as in ”Alice in Wonderland”) with flamingos as mallets and hedgehogs as balls than to give a coherent plot summary of ”Shame.”
Sunday was a relaxing day – a workout followed by coffee and crosswords and some time out by the pool (getting some sun so that I won’t burn in Cozumel).
After beer we had lunch at Hutchin’s barbecue joint. Their smoked barbecue meats are excellent. Finn had a rib and brisket combo lunch and I had my usual pulled pork sandwich. We added a couple of treats – Texas twinkies. These are large jalapeno peppers stuffed with cream cheese and brisket and wrapped in bacon. I saved some for Diana who also thought it was delicious.
For Saturday dinner we had planned to go to “Twenty Seven” restaurant in Deep Ellum but were very sad to find out that it had permanently closed. This was one of our favorites in Deep Ellum that served delicious and eclectic small plates that allowed you to sample several things. The chef, known as Chef DAT, is going back to doing the pop-up and underground dinners that he was well known for before opening this place.
I’m off to finish getting prepared for my trip to Japan tomorrow morning. Then I’m cooking Crispy Catfish and Parsley Mashed Potatoes for dinner. Looking forward to sharing news of my Japanese adventures next week.
Sunday was Father’s day. Here I am with my loot – Cowboys grilling tools, apron and chef’s hat from Will; Miles Davis art from Campbell, Finn, and Melanie; and a lovely selection of cards.
n beans and creamy jalapeno sauce (my favorite of the three – the chicken spice rub was delicious); Beef Arepas with pickled onion, avocado and radishes (arepas are flat, round cornbreads); and Maryland-style Cod Cake sandwiches with tartar sauce and red cabbage slaw.
The concert at the Granada was by the Ian Moore band. He’s a singer and blues guitar player who rose to fame in the early 90s in Austin. My favorite song of his is “Blue Sky” and there’s a link to listen to it below. When we arrived we had a surprise treat of Jason Elmore as an opening act. He’s a local blues guitarist that we typically see in small restaurants or bars and it was nice to see him on the big stage. The sound for Jason was great but Ian’s vocals were way too loud and distorted when he sang loudly – this was disappointing since he has such a great voice.
Denny came to visit on Sunday afternoon and spent the night with us – he has work in Plano next week. He helped finish up the puzzle with Alicia. I think they did about 20 of the 463 pieces but you would have thought they were the puzzle completing saviors to hear Denny.
Monday brought very pleasant weather – 84 degrees and mostly sunny. The garden is in full bloom now but severe thunderstorms, softball size hail (if not grapefruit size – good grief) and potential tornadoes were forecast for Tuesday. We escaped to New Orleans before the storm arrived and it just brought raine. Penelope came home today – she looks not too much the worse for wear but is missing her two “bumperettes” that will be installed in a couple of weeks.
