Delightful Surprise

It was a bit cold to be motorcycle riding, but I've got a good winter riding jacket and a super neck warmer. There's still snow on the ground in places where the sun doesn't hit much so I gotta watch out and avoid those streets. My Yamaha SR was not built for Sendai winter. It's definitely a spring through autumn ride.

I've been re-inspired to eat lunch at places in our neighborhood and then write reviews for them on Google maps. Today I tried a place that I've walked past a thousand times and thought every time I oughtta try that sometime. Well, today was finally the day.

It's called Bunbuku. And it was a delightful surprise. We've been living here for coming up on seven years and I'm just now getting to these little tucked away spots that are within a ten minute walk from our house. Last week I tried this other little greasy spoon joint called Ajihei and sat at the counter and had their liver and leek stir fry set and holy moly it was incredible, not just for it's fresh out of the kitchen steamy heat but also for the volume (I had to skip dinner) and balanced flavor.

At Bunbuku I felt I had to start my relationship with them by ordering their tantanmen. I parked my bike around the corner and arrived just as the owner was hanging the noren outside the entrance at 11:30 and he greeted me very warmly and said it's cold so you better hurry on inside. The place is super cozy, decorated like an old fashioned izakaya, which in the evenings it is. I cannot wait to pop in there for a few beers on an evening walk when springtime comes.

Comments

Not About Baseball

I stayed up past my bedtime again last night. I almost made it. I watched a couple of episodes of Ted Lasso and came to a good stopping point where I was satisfied with myself for enjoying some quiet TV time with my favorite show and even though it was after midnight, I was confident I could still get a pretty good night's sleep. But no. For some reason I decided it would be a good idea to just lay on the living room carpet and put on a movie. I saw the first seven or eight minutes of Goodfellas and then I woke up when the end credits were rolling with Sid Vicious' is cover of My Way . I brush my teeth and I can see the light of day already shining in through the bathroom window. "It’s almost the longest day of the year," I told myself, to at least rationalize why I'm brushing my teeth and crawling into bed at this hour. I was trying to minimize the mental anguish I regularly put on myself for not just going to bed like I should. I told Eri that I was thinking a...

Sendai vs. Tokushima

Osamu said he had to go pee, and I make it a habit to believe him most of the time. Another habit I have is taking him to go pee, much of the time. When we came out of the restroom I decided it was time for a beer, so with Osamu holding my hand we waltzed over to the food concession and I was checking out the selection, and the prices. Seven hundred yen for a draft beer. I had a feeling. It was only 500 for a whiskey cocktail (whiskey with water on the rocks) but I wasn't about to be that much of a derelict this early with my four-year-old son in tow. The tickets were free, the seats aren't bad, might as well spend seven bucks on a beer. The problem was that the dude next to us with his little boy about the same age as Mumu-chan loudly and with braggadocio you don't often see in these parts ordered a Blue Hawaii snow cone for his kid. I heard this and panicked. Last weekend at Michinoku Park I got a Blue Hawaii snow cone for Osamu and he loved it. I looked down at my l...

Overpriced Highball for the Big Guy

I keep falling asleep at my desk and waking up all groggy and surly in the middle of night, stumbling downstairs to brush my teeth without waking anyone, and slinking back up the steps and into bed. So I was the last one up again this morning, but I made up for it by quickly getting ready and taking the boys out on a Sunday morning walk to look for bugs. Kenzo has been particularly keen on capturing another lizard. He doesn't understand that lizard season is ending and those guys are becoming more and more rare. He got his hopes up when we came across a little one walking up some woodsy steps. After that we took a break. Eri's sister and her husband stopped by to grab the car seats that the boys just graduated from. Their little girl Emika is just now big enough to start using one and next spring she's gonna have a brand new baby brother or sister who will also need a car seat, so the timing worked out nice for all of us. Emika apparently loves Thomas the Tank Engine (who d...

This'll Just Take a Minute

Search This Blog