2015-04-01: New Record!

Sign Review: Reserved Seating

Plus he only had one crutch

The lovelorn get a seat too but I am pretty sure they are lower in the hierarchy.

Rating: 5/10 (I had to instruct her for the correct angle of crutches holding)

Pablo Neruda once wrote “I want to do with you what spring does with the cherry trees.” I think that this means Hanami (the watching of Cherry Blossoms) is a somewhat perverted voyeuristic activity. It was a poem though so it is art, not porn.

Lantern for night viewing

People put out blue tarpaulins under the trees to claim their spot then spend a decent chunk of time eating, drinking and chatting. Traditionally the cherry blossoms were compared to the Budo (samurai) spirit because the short lived blossom, beauty of it, death being noble and many other cultural things I will never understand.

He is on the phone, not making gestures at me, he said so

As far as I could see their was a lot less silent contemplation and a lot more partying. Even in the rain which, I think, is suited to silent contemplation. Whoever saw a sad noble spirit contemplating the futility of life and how to make it meaningful walking along Bondi Beach in the sun with a beer in his hand? No one, that's who. Groves of Blossoms gently falling in the drizzling rain? The existentialists should be queued up. If I start a travel agency it will be geared towards people that read too much Chekov and I will build a special cherry orchard with camouflaged rain spouts so they too can feel the whispery certainty of death falling on their shoulders.
Then I'll take them to the Tigers sports bar so they can have some chicken wings.

Cherry Blossom inspired Zima.

They have lanterns in the tree for night time viewing but the weather today is wet and cold so we may have to put it off for a few days.

And for those that get bored of Blossoms here is a man on a board balanced on a can forcing himself through hoops.

Nagoya has three parks with significant size groves and the blossoms apparently have different varieties which come out over different periods so we should be able to get at least one night time viewing in.

Food & Beverage Review: Saizeriya

http://www.saizeriya.co.jp/
All over the place chain.
Yōshoku is western food which has been modified to suit the Japanese cuisine, palate, ingredients etc. In this case it is Doria. Rice in a cheese sauce. Rice gratin. Seems odd enough that we have to try.

Like a friendly Eye Of Mordor at the table

The rice actually holds together well and has a decent texture, better than most risottos I have had.Comes with a variety of toppings but the soft boiled eggs in Japan are generally pretty damn good so my often default choice in a new scenario. This is tomato/ meat sauce with a soft boiled egg. There was a hint of burned bits at the bottom. They were good, if I was making this it would definitely have more than a hint. I am told it is really good with some special bread they make to have with it and you just scoop out the saucey ricey bits. That sounds like a lot of starch and therefore probably awesome.

And of course, wings. Because Nagoya

Rating 6/10 (It seems it would be great on a cold cold day)

Ewa can walk without crutches. Kind of. She managed to get from her Fort to the Kitchen today. It did look like Angus Young from ACDC was doing a one legged solo while off to get a beer but technically it was walking without crutches. And I like to think that Angus Young does move around his house like that.

Sign Review: Kiddie Safety

But it does look like an adventure which is appealing to some types of children (me)

Japanese iconography is pretty good at getting the message across. Certainly better than western stuff as a generic rule. The styles and messages seem to clash to me at times and create a semi humorous end product but I am sure that is more cultural than anything else.

Rating: 7/10 (just don't show children like me)

The streets in Nagoya are interesting. There are large multi lane roads which are almost congestion free and then everything else is a lane.

Pretty Pink Blossoms at Night

Almost as if they had only lanes but drew some lines on the map and then just grabbed some bulldozers and knocked everything down and built the roadways. This is probably fairly true as many of Japan's big cities  were absolutely massive by European standards a couple of hundred years ago. From memory Edo (now Tokyo) was like a million people in the late 1600's when Europe was just starting to get over the Black Death and was therefore teency.

Food & Beverage Review: Furaibou

http://www.furaibou.com/
We went to the one in or near Chikusa. This is important as apparently franchises here don't always enforce cooking methods etc. The one across the road from our place is apparently not worth spitting at as you walk past with a sneer on your face. But this one is great.

I just know I will have to update the name of the place, I wrote it based on a drunken memory of a verbal mention.

Time to raise contentious issues. We have had the chicken wings from the Tourist Checklist. We have had them a few other places as well. A local has claimed these are the best. We are willing to test that theory. Partly For Science! but mostly because Wings!

They do the best Lemon Sour Highball so far. It is a participation drink as you get to squeeze your own lemon. Ladies find this fun.

They do a lot of food aside from wings so we will have a wings rating and a food rating as separate fields of competition.

Egg is just a reminder that chicken is coming real soon now.

This place is pretty big (multiple floors - we were at the bar like cool kids) and was well busy when we were there. Orders took a little longer than usual

And here they are. These have a slightly sweet garlic flavour to them which I like better than the Yamachan tons of black pepper. However I am still going to give preference to The Tigers Sports Bar wings as my running favourites. These are drier and the Tigers have a slightly more robust salt and pepper seasoning without being crazy. Ewa agrees. We have decided in the interests of fairness to go back and double check the Tigers Bar wasn't just a lucky chance though. Because We Are Diligent!

Food on sticks. All good except the Beef Heart which was pretty damn chewy, If you like chewy it had tons of beefy flavour but Ewa couldn't get through a stick and I only ate half of what she had left. I must admit I think beef heart is always chewy but the menu said beef heart and liver which would have worked better maybe. Anyway leaving this out of the rating as I am sure offal lovers are of many types that it is pointless saying it is good or bad.

Needs a moat and barbican for defensive eating positions

This, I think, was the winner of the evening. Tartar sauce with huge chunks of pickled cucumber that I am probably allowed to call Gherkins but I am not sure. Not like that namby pamby Australian Tartare sauce where they are afraid we might choke on it or something. The fried chicken and shredded salad were perfect to go with that sauce. If we go back this will have to be a plate each as Ewa started looking like she was sharpening her elbows to defend the plate at one point. I think this might be called Chikin Nanban, be a form of Yōshoku and also be the only case where google translate is correct saying that Chicken in Japanese is Chikin.

Wings Rating: 7.5/10 (I am retroactively putting Yamachan down to a 6.5 leaving the Tigers bar at 8.5. This is because I can and also because I want to leave room for more excellent wings to grab 9 or even 9.5 points.)

Overall Rating: 8/10 (That tartare sauce was great)

Sign Review: Defibrillator Information

Not sure the Blue tie goes with the shirt but he can pull it off (heh)

I am awful. Walking across the road all I could see was a cartoon dude ripping his shirt off for Emergencies! Then I noticed they had pictures of boobs too, but the boobs had defibrillator paddles so it was medical, not porn.

Rating: 8/10 (He is a damn fine looking man, just a hint of emotion)