てんぷら山の上

Today was absolutely phenomenal! Well, the morning was pretty average, but overall today was really great!   Class today went well. The pop culture topic of the day was contemporary art; tomorrow will be a review of all the topics before presentations start on Monday. I need to get on that powerpoint and paper starting tomorrow. Today I started... sort of... well... I saved a document for it, and that totally counts! Class was out 10min early so I had an extra long break before econ and I had time to facebook chat for awhile. Thank goodness for FINALLY getting the Sophia wifi to work on my laptop!
After school I skyped with my family and made a quick run to the grocery store for what may be the final Nat-chan run. It may be the 2nd to last though... we'll have to see.
Anyways, the big fun of the day was meeting up with my friends cousin, Takehiro, who lives in Tokyo.  We met at 7pm and took the subway to Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi. Roppongi may be known to many foreigners for its club scene, but it is definitely an upscale area! The second I walked out of the station I definitely knew I wasn't in Kansas anymore. We went inside of a very nice shopping center and looked around a couple of shops until it was time for our reservation. The restaurant was called  てんぷら山の上. For those of you who don't read Japanese, it's a Tempura restaurant. Now I don't know about you, but I always think of tempura as more of a fast food type item. I have been proven wrong. It can be and tonight definitely was a gourmet dining experience. Now when I say this was a nice place I don't mean like 'The Cheesecake Factory'. I don't mean like 'The Keg'. I mean like check in your purse, waiter pulls out your chair for you,  never have to pour your own Perrier, sit across from the chef and watching fireworks through the window as you first sit down type nice. I couldn't take pictures (there's a certain line that even I won't cross when it comes to taking photos in establishments) so here's a google image of where I was sitting.

Everything was beyond delicious, I never knew such flavor could be attained by tempura! Throughout the meal I was able to have a wonderful conversation using a combination of Japanese (so I could practice) and English (so Takehiro could practice). I feel like this was a unique experience I could only have had with a local, and I am so thankful that I was able to meet with Takehiro this evening. It definitely took some phone tag before we could figure out a time, but I am so happy that it worked out for us to be able to meet up. 

So that was my big excitement for the day. I seem to be sleeping less and less as the trip goes on (if you notice what time this is being posted... and when yesterdays was posted...). Luckily I have Sunday off of class so I just have to wake up early tomorrow and then I'll finally have another day where I can sleep past 6:30am!

Peace, love, and hairspray!

~Jenn