Holiday Dinner Party!

 A little holiday get together! The chicken was supposed to be the center piece of this picture, it was bigger than what this picture is making it out to be. I was hanging out with some mighty people this night! Half was doctors and the other half had jobs in the media. One guy, who had to leave early, is a camera man that takes pictures of idols for magazines. The most recent photo shoot that he did involved the AKB 48 girls! (For those of you who don't know they are, at the moment they are one of the most high profile singing girl groups) The woman on the far left and her husband, who is taking the picture, work at a Nagoya T.V. network....in other words I was the itty bitty person that had nothing to really contribute to the conversation, but everybody was so nice that they included me in their conversations.

 The Chicken! Yes, it deserves a capital letter! It was very good! Thank you Nao-san!

 Sato attempting to cut the chicken. Notice he is attempting to surgically cut the chicken. lol

The cake! I've had so much cake this holiday season, I think I don't need any more cake for at least......three more days. hehe (# ^-^ #) Hey, that's a long time to go without cake!

Christmas Dinner.....Sushi!

 This was Chrismas Eve, but we had a little mini celebration at Sato's parent's house. There was the strawberry shortcake on the left and the chocolate cake on the right.

 This is Christmas dinner! Sato took me and his parent's to this sushi restaurant called Okezushi, and it is one of the best sushi restaurant's in Nagoya!

 We started with a little tofu that the Master has specially made with one of his contacts, of course top secret information.

 I can't remember all the names of the different kinds of fish that I had, but Sato made reservations for the Christmas course. At a place like this it is best if you just choose a course and let the Master go to work. They ask you if there is anything that you don't like or are allergic to and they will alter the menu a little bit for you. Of course, if you don't like fish I highly recommend that you don't go to a sushi restaurant.

 If you like seafood and have an open palette then I highly suggest that you come here and enjoy what the Master serves you! This is Unagi and Anago, two different types of eel.  I won't comment too much in this blog, because the pictures speak for themselves. Every time you come to a new picture just know that the Delicious comments are implied! I will try to label what each picture is if I can.

 Ama-ebi, Sweet Shrimp.

 Uni, Sea Urchin. I usually don't care for Uni, but this was very good. There was no trace of bitterness!

 Chu toro, fatty tuna.

 Fugu, Puffer fish.

 Miso soup with seasonal clams.

 Chawan mushi, Japanese egg custard.

 Kani, crab.

 Ikura, Salmon eggs. This is another one that I usually don't order, but here it was very smooth! Not overly salt or tough.

 Hotate, scallop.

 Awabi, I want to say Abalone, but I could be wrong.

 Saba, Mackeral. One of my favorites!!!! There is konbu or a type of seaweed on top, but this one you don't even notice.

Tekka maki, Tuna roll.

 Ume.

 The beautiful place mat that I didn't even really notice until after I finished eating. My eyes went straight to the display of fish.

 Dessert was fresh strawberries. The Master doesn't do anything with the strawberries other than keep the location of where he gets them from a secret. These strawberries had a wonderful flavor that I have never encountered in a strawberry and probably never will again unless I come back to this restaurant during the winter.

 Of course, when the Master asks you what was your favorite out of the entire meal don't say the strawberries, because one, he knows they were good, and two, he didn't make them. He wants to know out of the items that he made, what did you like the best. I had to say the uni and ikura, because I normally don't care for them but they were so good! I would gladly order them again! Also, when you start getting full you can ask them to reduce the amount of rice. Just don't ask them to reduce the rice before you start eating, because the rice is a certain size for a reason.

All the salt that the Master uses is specially made. He gave us a packet of salt that he has made nearby and it has his picture and the address of the restaurant on it. It's his special blend of salt.

Nagoya Port Aquarium

 This is me standing in front of the entrance to the Nagoya Port Aquarium. You can tell I went before Christmas because they have Christmas decorations up.

 As soon as you walk in you can see the killer whale that arrived not too long ago. The Killer Whale is so new that he or she, I can't remember which, is still in training. No Killer Whale show yet, but I'm sure there will be soon.

 You can see the Killer Whale is a ham already with no training.

 This is what the dolphins and whales must see everyday, blue people. They must wonder why people are blue.

 The Beluga Whale tank!

 These guys really liked swimming around and entertaining the people that came to see them.

 This was the first Aquarium that I have been to that had fossils in the building. They also had some movie rooms that talked about how whales came to be.

 Some more of the whale room.

 Here is the tank that had sharks, sardines and tuna. Apparently, there used to be 30 some tuna fish in here, but the sharks ate some of them. There were about 10 left when we were here. I think they add the tuna once a year.....at least I am assuming they do since there is a sign for tuna and if the sharks keep eating them....

 This little guy was funny. He is just resting on the rail like he is taking a break from a long day of walking around the tank. He originally was just lying on the ground, but as I was watching him he hoped up into this position and then.......

 he moved to the other side and decided to see what was going on over here.

 Mini seahorses. I've never seen live seahorses before so this was pretty cool.

 I don't know how else to describe this other than they look like furry cucumbers.

 Ahh the jellyfish. The lighting changed colors in some of the tanks and since jellyfish are either see through or a milky white, they looked awesome!

 These were some very tiny jellyfish.

 This jellyfish had some ridiculously long....string-y things......sorry, I have no idea what their different body parts are called. For those who do know the correct names, I apologize.

 This jellyfish was rocking the animal print look. Go Jellyfish!

 I think this is my favorite jellyfish, and my idea of what a jellyfish looks like.

 The Tornado of Sardines! It's an actual show that the aquarium puts on. If you keep going through my pictures you will see the tornado materialize and see how it moves across the tank.

 The tornado has formed!

 The tornado is on the move!

 It's all Sardines now!

 The sharks better watch out or the school of Sardines are going to "run" into them!

 The tornado is now in the central area of the tank and it is now moving eastward!

 The tornado is now in the Eastern part of the tank and is wrecking havoc!...what kind of havoc? Well, not much since they are sardines and there isn't anything to wreck, except for maybe their dinner...On to the Dolphin Show!

 The Dolphin Show was fun as all dolphin shows are. Dolphins are so smart! They can also jump ridiculously high!

 This dolphin hit the hanging target with it's tail! Not only did the dolphin have to jump really high, but it also had to somersault in the air, and hit the hanging target with it's tail!

 

 This a shot of the dolphins as a group going around the tank and splashing some with water. That's what they get for wanting to sit so close to the water!

 For those of you who decide to visit the Nagoya Port Aquarium, don't forget to see the dolphin show! Although, I'm not sure if the show happens during the winter. The viewing area is outside and it may be a little too cold for the trainers. Probably the best time to watch the show is in the Spring or Fall.

 The turtle tank was really big and had different species of turtles. They had at least 3 different species in in this tank and they were all really big. This turtle followed Sato's finger for a bit, we think the turtle may have been bored and decided to humor us.

 Of course, we can't forget the Penguins! I was surprised that they had different species of penguins all in one area.

There were so many people looking at the Penguins that we couldn't get to the other side that had some of the smaller species of penguins, sorry!