The Fishing Restaurant

My Kameido family celebrated the 10th anniversary of their business a few weeks ago. To commemorate the event, we went to the most FANTASTIC restaurant! Actually my favorite one yet! It was absolutely amazing.

I went to Kameido for one of our weekly english lessons. When we were finished, Sonya said: "tonight is special night. we celebrate. 10 year anniversary of our company. We go fishing."

Well, given the fact that they treat me to a gourmet meal twice a week, and each one is an adventure and is delicious and memorable, I have learned to trust Sonya whenever she puts on her jacket and walking shoes and says: "follow me." I don't ask questions! To tell the truth, the walls of my wallet have such an intimate relationship with each other (there is never any money in between to give them distance, i.e., I'm always BROKE!), many times I have come to Kameido having not eaten all day for I know a wonderful dinner awaits me there. It has become a sense of relief knowing that I can make it from day to day here on very little money and if it runs out, I won't go hungry (at least 2 nights a week!) They have treated me like such family. I will remember them always. I can't wait to someday return to them the generosity they have bestowed upon me here in Tokyo. When I get married, I want to invite them back to the States for a week-long vacation, and FEED THEM! (Sorry for my tangent. But that's what a blog is all about, right?)
So we got to the "fishing place", and I really didn't know if we were going to jump in a boat and fish all night, or if we were going someplace to eat. When we got to the restaurant, they wanted me to walk in front of them. I'm sure they were waiting for my reaction when I saw the interior. On the inside, there were massive tanks surrounding the whole restaurant. It was amazing. The tables were built all around the tanks. The fish swam freely throughout the restaurant, under a bridge, a platform, and more. There were also tanks with oysters, lobsters, clams, flounder and crabs.

When we sat down, they gave us fishing poles and baby shrimp as bait! We put the bait on the poles and started fishing for carp, for tripe, for salmon, and anything else that might bite! Alisha and I worked the first "shift". Then Amy and Nick came to help out! Pretty soon, Amy caught a carp! They netted the fresh carp and the whole restaurant clapped. Within 20 minutes we were eating the victim! Then Nick caught a flounder! One was grilled and then they fried the other. We supplemented our catches with sushi and other exotic foods. Hideki and Sonya think it's funny when I'll agree to try anything. I don't know what all I ate that night. Oh yeah! I almost forgot! I ate this huge conch-like thing! They could not believe I would eat it! But hey, I'm an adventurous American. I'll try anything once! (well, as long as I'm not in a 3rd world country...not so sure I'd eat a cockroach...) My friends Kristina and Jeremy are going to Beijing in a couple of days. They eat cockroaches there, I hear. And dog. Full report on that later.
Alisha is quite the photographer. She loves taking silly pictures of me.

Here are some remnants of my trip to Tsukiji with Jared. I just got them off of my phone.
It takes 2 months for the tuna to make it back to Tsukiji. It is frozen on the ships and the ships stay out for 2 months at a time.
Kristina just went to the fish market and reports that the auctions are now closed to foreigners! That's a shame, because Jared and I had so much fun at the auction! We did ask to see the fresh tuna, too. Maybe we were some of those annoying Americans who ruined it for everyone else! Sorry!

Jared was a great photographer. When he actually returned to the states, he had taken over 8 rolls of film!