Finishing up the June 18 week, and a bit of food randomness

The week finally wrapped up, not until 7:30 AM Saturday local time due to Friday afternoon U.S. calls, but no worries there - time for the weekend. Prior to that, in the latter portion of the week I captured 3 different food related experiences that I wanted to share (including photos).

1. Breakfast. Boy we're lucky, everyday M-F we get breakfast provided in the lobby of our apartment building. So every morning Sae and I take our tray with plate, cup, etc. down to the lobby, drop a quick 'Ohayou Gozaimasu' (polite hello/good morning), and grab our breakfast. The breakfast is great - an assortment of breads, fruit, yogurt, pudding, coffee and tea. First the breads - very interesting and delicious. In the U.S. our breakfast breads are best summed up with one word: sweet. Here, that is one of many varieties. We have rolls filled with meat sauce, bread with shrimp and salmon roe, tandori chicken bun, etc. There are also a variety of traditional ones, then your more standard croissants, grains, etc. I normally choose one of the non-traditional ones. Here you get used to things that are not as sweet, and begin to appreciate a wider variety of flavors in the AM. Also, these ones are a bit more hearty with more protein and hang with you longer.

2. Yakitoli. This is basically grilled chicken and pork on small spits/sticks. These, are awesome! Generally they are so flavorful and moist there is no need for any type of a sauce. We had these on Wednesday night for dinner. It was probably one of my longest days, and I just wanted to get out and about to blow off some steam after a long day. We had quite a variety: chicken breast, chicken neck, chicken "hind", pork, ground chicken, etc. These combined with an ice tall glass of beer - outstanding.

3. Japanese peanut butter sandwich. Japan has this one FIGURED OUT. They sell them in sealed packages in small convenience stores. The bread is super spongy, always have a this neat peanut image actually "printed" on the bread, and are basically these crustless packages of peanut butter. These are great for a quick bite to eat. The peanut butter is super creamy and light/whipped - contrary to our thicker, pretty heavy spread. I first had these about 3 years ago, definitely still near the top of the list for me in terms of "convenience store" quick food.

Sae is sleeping for awhile, she had an install/implementation that went for nearly 24 hours, so I'll be hitting the gym alone today, then hopefully we'll go out for something big this evening. Lord knows we're working hard, so it's time to play even harder.

Matt