August 21, 2022

In six more days I will get on a plane and head to Anacortes, Washington, via San Francisco. That reminds me of the John Denver song:

All my bags are packed, I'm ready to go
I'm standing here outside your door
I hate to wake you up to say goodbye
But the dawn is breaking, it's early morn
The taxi's waiting, he's blowin' his horn
Already I'm so lonesome I could die

[Chorus]
So kiss me and smile for me
Tell me that you'll wait for me
Hold me like you'll never let me go
'Cause I'm leaving on a jet plane
Don't know when I'll be back again
Oh babe, I hate to go

In my case, I know when I will be back again – September 12.

I can’t wait to see my daughter and grandkids. The last time that I saw them was in December 2019. The kids have really grown a lot in the past almost three years. I don’t have to worry about driving them around since Max has his driver’s license now. My usual daily routine while there is washing, drying, and folding tons of laundry every day, and cleaning house. Fortunately, I enjoy doing these things. I will try to write my “what’s new” here if I have time, but no promises.

The weather is cooling down a little. I recommend that you get outside and get some fresh air. A great place to go is Okutama. Walking along Tama River surrounded by nature is so relaxing. In Anacortes, I will wake up to the view of the sea and in the evenings, around 8:30 pm, look at the most beautiful sunsets from the deck of my daughter’s house while sipping on a Rainier beer.

Japan is known throughout the world for its excellent seafood, so finding some decent grilled eel might seem like a simple task. Takamichi is a resident of Gunma Prefecture, one of Japan’s few landlocked prefectures; while Gunma is famous for konjac and manju, it’s not really known for delicious seafood like eel.

So, Takamichi was thrilled when he came across Kawatomi, a local restaurant with great reviews online, as well as some pictures of delicious-looking grilled eel. With his heart full of hope and a stomach ready to be full of delicious eel, he hopped on a train and headed to Gunma’s Ota City. 

He arrived at Sanmaibashi station, and from there it was a 20-minute walk to the restaurant. While Gunma is pretty close to Tokyo, it’s significantly more rural; there were no buses nor public transport to take him to his destination, so Takamichi began to stroll through the countryside in the blazing heat. According to Google Maps, the restaurant was supposed to be somewhere in this area, but Takamichi couldn’t see anything that looked like a restaurant… unless…. behind these bushes…? He had arrived at Kawatomi, and it certainly wasn’t what he had been expecting. 

There were bushes growing on the side of the building, and the bright green and yellow walls didn’t seem like anything you’d find in Japan. It was like Takamichi had traveled to a different country. The restaurant menu was posted on one of the brightly colored walls. There were a whole bunch of delicious-looking meals, like yakisoba and deep-fried apple, but Takamichi had travelled to these distant lands to try one thing and one thing only — his beloved grilled eel.

But as he took a closer look at the menu, he noticed something was slightly off. Where he had been expecting to see ‘unagi no kabayaki’ (grilled eel), instead was ‘nasu no kabayaki’ (grilled eggplant).

The pictures of the grilled eel that he’d seen online wasn’t grilled eel, it was grilled eggplant!

Unagi no kabayaki may have been off the menu, but Takamichi hadn’t come all this way just to go home empty bellied. Besides, the grilled eggplant must be pretty good to have gathered so many positive reviews online, so he ordered the nasu no kabayaki. After just ten minutes, his meal was ready, so he went to grab it from the counter. The meal included some miso soup and pickles, cost 1,110 yen and came in a box just like unagi no kabayaki.  When Takamichi opened the lid, he had to do a double take because what was inside looked just like grilled eel! He wouldn’t believe that it wasn’t eel! But as he lifted one of the eggplant layers, he noticed something unusual, underneath the eggplant was some roast chicken!

The sauce that the eggplant was marinated in was delicious, and the chicken, rice and seaweed also ended up getting soaked in it too. Takamichi felt himself falling in love with the meal more and more with each bite — who knew that eggplant could be so delicious?

He said that he actually preferred grilled eggplant to grilled eel.

Restaurant information if you want to take a day trip to eat some:
かわとみ　Kawatomi
Gunma, Ota-shi, Gokudo-cho 178-2
群馬県太田市強戸町178-2
Open 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. (for eat in customers, last order is 2:00 p.m.)
Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays

“Landlocked” means “it does not touch the sea.”

“Hopped on a train” means “to take a train.” (In a previous lesson when hobos “hopped trains” they rode trains without paying. In this case, he bought a ticket.)

“Rural” means “countryside.”

“Blazing heat” means “very hot day.”

“Something was slightly off” means “something was strange.”

“Empty bellied” means “hungry.”

“To grab it” means “to quickly take it.”

“Do a double take” means “to look at it twice because he was surprised.”