January 24: Tokyo Day 5

This morning I was able to sleep in until about 8 or so and then when I woke up Christal and I went to Familty Mart to pick up breakfast. I ended up getting a tonkatsu dog and a chicken and cheese patty. The chicken and cheese patty was a little disappointing, but at least the cheese was subtle and not overpowering. The tonkatsu dog was a lot better than I had expected. There was some tsukemono hidden under the tonkatsu and the tonkatsu sauce also helped add some extra flavor. After I finished breakfast we had to pack up because tonight we are staying at a hotel next to Haneda Airport. Uncle Kiyonari and Auntie Megumi picked us, and our luggage, up at about 11 and took us over to Ogikubo to the church to set up for the memorial service. 

Katsu Dog, Chicken & Cheese Patty

When we got to the church we put our stuff in a back room where we could change our clothes later and then Christal and I walked around the neighborhood for about half an hour. While we were walking around we saw Karen and Maria walking to the church from the train station. We headed back to the church to see if Otousan was done meeting with the people he needed to meet with. Unfortunately he wasn't so Christal and I went out to lunch with Karen and Maria to a small soba shop near the church called Chouju-An. Uncle Kiyonari and Auntie Megumi were going to join us, but there wasn't enough room in the shop, that's how small it was. I ordered tanuki soba, which was hot soba with tempura crisps in a broth. The soba was more tender and elastic than the soba I had yesterday, maybe it had more wheat flour in it. The broth was exceptional. It was very savory, but not salty, with a hint of sweetness and packed with umami. It was so good that I almost drank all of it even after I had finished the soba. The tempura crisps added a nice crunch in the beginning and then as they soaked up the broth they added a nice richness to the soba. 

Tanuki Soba

After lunch we headed back to the church and changed into our dress clothes. The service went well, but Luke was tired and got a bit fussy after Christal spoke so I took him to the mothers' room to try and get him to fall asleep. There was too much for him to look at though and the speaker was on fairly loud so he was too distracted to sleep. After the memorial service finished I changed Luke and took him to Christal and we visited with some of the people who came to the service. There was even a large group of ESL students from HMA that came, including Nao Manabe, so it was nice to see them and catch up with Nao. When we were done visiting with people and had changed we said our goodbyes to Alyssa, Karen and Maria and then Uncle Kiyonari and Auntie Megumi drove us to the hotel next to Haneda Airport that we were staying at. After they dropped us off and we all said our goodbyes we put our luggage in the rooms and then Christal, Luke, Otousan and I went out to dinner at Uotami. Otousan said it was like a Japanese seafood izakaya, and it was good, especially for being just a block from the hotel. We started with assorted tsukemonos and then we ordered shishamo (smelt), shirako (cod milt) with a ponzu sauce, green onion yakitori, a daikon salad with shiso dressing, amaebi tempura, buri (mature yellowtail) yakitori, hokke (atka mackerel), omelet stuffed with stir fried noodles and lastly, stingray fins. When we were almost done with dinner one of Otousan's high school friends stopped by because another high school friend Otousan was texting with on Facebook called him to tell him where we were. Anyway, they caught up for a while and once Christal and I were done we left the restaurant to run some errands and repack for the trip to Fukuoka.

Shirako w Ponzu