Howdy!

First of all, Kanji test! I did heaps good! There’s a really good chance I aced it, so… fingers crossed.  I did a serious cram session trying to remember all the combinations I needed to – but i think I did it! Yay!

Now onto the real highlight of the day: Dinner with JB.

So as mentioned in a previous post, pretty sure it was the last one – too lazy to check, I mentioned I was going to dinner with my friend from my Japanese class: JB.  So he brought his Japanese girlfriend along, Aki, and another friend, Nao (another Japanese girl), and JB’s long time friend Matt.  Now we really had no plans but I figured it was going to be a very Japanese night, food wise. And I was right!  I met up with JB and Aki at the Queens Plaza on Queen Street in Brisbane, and while we were waiting for Nao and Matt we decided to have a couple beers at the “Pig n Whistle” (a small bar IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET/MALL THING!), but yeah it was cool.  Aki was a really nice! She was telling me how she worked at this Japanese restaurant nearby called “Oshin”, but in Japan she used to design patterns for clothing etc.  And now, she’s actually on trial to do the same thing here in Australia with a pretty big brand name company – Good luck to her! JB got me an Asahi Beer – I’m not a beer fan but I wasn’t about to refuse him.  But… This was kinda different… I actually enjoyed the Asahi Beer! I’ve never had it before and yeah, it wasn’t bad at all. So.. I had another one.

Nao showed up when I went for the second round – she is full of energy!  Just full of expression, conversation and is very animated.  She teaches Japanese here in Australia and also works with JB and used to work at Oshin.  Her english was quite good and she wasn’t afraid to use it! Haha

But yeah, up until now i’ve had absolutely no contact with Japanese people before (apart from my teachers now, and a random tourist here and there).  And it was really cool to watch Aki and Nao chat away, along with JB who can speak it, and it was really interesting to hear what casual talk is like in Japanese.  Now of course I only understood a random word here or there, but it was really interesting, and they always translated what they were saying if it was particularly interesting or funny.

So we decided to eat at Oshin, and we would meet Matt there.

So… I’ve not REALLY eaten Japanese before.  I mean i’ve gotten like… Chicken Katsu, curry and rice… ramen… sushi… just random things from little takeaway places – but i’ve never been to a full on Japanese restaraunt before – and so that was on the agenda.  Oh and I’m really fussy with food! NOT COOL! That’s gonna change… starting 4 hours ago.

JB and I let the girls order food and drinks.  So what we ended up with was (in order of eatage):

• beef sashimi – that’s the raw bits of meat right?
• plum wine to drink
• Teriyaki Chicken
• Tempura Prawns
• miso soup
• beef sukiyaki – (I think…)

Yeah… so… I’ve eaten Teriyaki Chicken before… aaand.. that’s it really.  So this was all new to me.  First up was the beef sashimi.  I’ve never eaten raw beef before.  Ever.  But it was amazing!!! Dipped it in a bit of soy sauce (i think) and yeah, beautiful. Soooo good.  The plum wine was very sweet, but good – borderlined too sweet, but it was good. The teriyaki chicken was amazing, the best piece of chicken i’d ever eaten in my life right there. So full of flavour.  I’d never eaten tempura prawns before, because… I don’t like prawns.  But screw that! I had some! It wasn’t bad, it didn’t have that much flavour to me, but a bit of soy sauce fixed that quick smart.  Miso soup was good too, it was odd, but very good.

Beef sukiyaki: ZOMG AMAZING. Fun too it’s cool how u mix all the stuff into the hot pot.  And… clarification please: you then take what you want out of the pot and put it into your own bowl of raw egg? Really? is that normal??? it was good though! But, i found that odd, and i’ve never had raw egg before. But yeah, this stuff was great.

Oh yeah, Matt showed up before all the food came out too, he’s a really cool dude.  And we were all just chatting away, eating awesome food, I was learning a lot about Japan, the Japanese language, and how it’s hard for Nao to say words that end in “ble” (“unbelievable” to be specific).  Matt has also been to Japan before, and wants to go back, JB has lived in Japan for 2 years, and Nao and Aki are obviously Japanese – this really created a cool atmosphere being surrounded by people with a similar interest.

Afterwards we went back to the Pig n Whistle for more alcoholic beverages and conversation.  Then I headed home.

It was an amazing night, I really needed it.  So big thanks to JB for inviting me out, it was a huge pleasure meeting Aki, Nao and Matt.  The only regret was that I didn’t bring my camera

Ciao for Now!