Restaurant review #1 and memoirs of a kobe steak dinner

Ok,
Renata and I were looking for this Italian restaurant in Kawasaki that I'd been to before, but we never managed to find it, so we decided to try somewhere new. I'm so glad we did.
I'll try to find the name of this place and maybe a picture, and I'll put them in this post when I do. It's an Italian restaurant located on the 10th floor of the OIOI (pronounced "Marui") building across the street from the main exit (big tv screen as you take the escalator) of the JR Kawasaki station. There's a Starbuck's and a Yodobashi Camera on the first floor if landmarks help.
If you go to this restaurant, I would highly recommend the B set course for 2. In the course, we had a caesar salad, choice from 4-5 different pizzas, 4-5 different pastas, a sirloin steak, tiramisu and a drink for 3800 yen. Keep in mind this is Japan, so the portions left us satisfied, but not stuffed. Everything was delicious, but that steak was one of the best I've had here yet. Finally, this place is clean, quiet (for Japan, that is) and has an unbeatable view of Kawasaki!
If you're looking for a great place to take a date for a reasonable amount of money, I recommend the 10 floor, OIOI building in Kawasaki

Now, I thought I would elaborate on the Kobe steak from the New York Grill.
First of all, Kobe cows have a good life, albeit a short one; they are fed beer and massaged every day. Because of the time spent taking care of the cows, Japanese farmers can raise only 1 or 2 of them a year. Asking price usually starts at about 1,000,000 yen per cow. Kobe beef is not exported; others countries raise "kobe" cows domestically, so I definitely had the real thing, as they named the prefecture where the beef came from.
Oh, this stuff was so yummy! the fat is so tightly mingled with the meat that it changes the texture of the steak, making it softer but not mushy. The flavor of this thing is incredible; no spices or marinades are necessary. In fact, I think marinating kobe beef would be rather like infusing crème brûlée with essence of twinkie; you're wasting your money. At times, there was almost too much fat mixed with the meat, but that's par for the course in Japan; fattier meat is considered higher quality over here.
If you have a chance to try a kobe steak, please do! It's worth the experience at least once, but make sure a competent chef is doing the cooking; that's an expensive mistake.
Thanks for reading. Don't forget to check for bed sores; this was a pretty long post

Back to being a book of the Bible

Well,
The Book of Daniel the tv show has been cancelled...praise the Lord! Over 650,000 emails were sent to NBC asking them to cancel the show. It's nice to see believers putting their feet down and stomping on vermin like this program; it should happen more often.
I've seen some shows that were pretty good lately, but they slap Christ in the face so hard that their merits are all but erased . I'm probably going to get the smack laid down on me for this, but I can think of no better example than the recently cancelled Firefly. The writing is excellent, and the characters are deep as well as diverse. The whore on board the ship is one of the, if not the wisest members of the crew, but wisdom does not come from sexual perversion. There was also a lovely scene involving seduction into lesbian revelry. Joss has made pot shots at the credibility of the Bible by having the genius of the crew cut out the verses that "conflict."
Excellent writing is a gift from God, and "Every good and perfect gift comes from above" (James 1:17). That means there can be excellent tv shows that not only don't offend God, but even glorify Him. We always talk about singing praises to God in heaven; with what other art forms will we worship Him?
Anyway, I'm rambling now. Just glad that the church in the US has power to turn this ship away from the glacier that lies before us.
I love the smell of radical Christian fundamentalism in the morning

Good News!

Well,
it's official; I'm getting married! I proposed to Renata tonight at the New York Grill; 52nd floor atop the Shinjuku Park Hyatt Hotel. It was the first snow of the year, and, by the end of the evening, we could see snow on everything below us. Live jazz music played in the background as we enjoyed New Zealand rack of lamb and Kobe beef (which was the most delicious steak I've ever had (more on that later)). I'll never forget this night.
Father God, thank You for this wonderful woman, whom I do not deserve. She is a Proverbs 31 woman, worth far more than gold or precious stones. Grant me the grace and wisdom to lead her as You have commanded. May my love for her always be a joyful labor and our life always an offering to You.
I thought I would provide a picture of this spectacular event. You can see a little of the Tokyo skyline in the background.
May God bless you and give you the desires of your heart as well!

Bento

I just had an excellent lunch. It wasn`t any different than we have here at the school everyday, but, today, it just tasted excellent. Japanese bento (box lunch) is pretty good sometimes. You get a box divided into 4 squares. Rice is always one of them. Today, there were also 3 small muffin-cup sized samples of Japanese veggies, one side of tuna salad (with carrots, cucumber, lettuce, and spinach), and karage (fried chicken); even a little side of pineapple for dessert.
Being from the US, I`m so used to a main dish and fries; having a sampling of a lot of things was nice (made all the more better by not being so enormous as to be impossible to finish). That`s it. It was just really good. More meaningful content later.

Nouveaux riche

I saw a humvee this evening on my way home. I was quite surprised; what's a gas-guzzling hunk of crap like that doing in this country? It must cost my annual salary just to keep that thing fueled! Then I saw it pull into a Gusto (Japanese equivalent of a Denny's (although Denny's is here too)). I was once again reminded that the west has passed on much more than it's economics and fashion.

All of those gauche aspects of western "civilization" are making their way over here too. Every teen-ager wants to look like an idiot because young westerners look like idiots. Kids over here, like pop stars, with no business handling the kind of cash they do, spend it on items of instant gratification with no regard for the future. That's why you see people like this with 80,000$ cars and 3.50$ taste.

I think I'll go get a hamburger...

Octavarium...live!

I saw Dream Theater live in concert tonight. Third row from the back, which is pretty darn far back. I bought binoculars specifically for the performance, though, and they were a lifesaver. DT played at the International Forum in Yurakucho; a much larger venue than I've seen them play in the States...and they were awesome!!!
The concert lasted 3&1/2 hours with a 15 minute intermission, and it was all them; no opening groups or anything. They began with the title track, Octavarium, followed by I can't remember what; there was so much music. At the beginning of the second half, they did about 6-7 Deep Purple covers, including "Highway Star" and "Smoke On The Water". They finished the concert with "Pull Me Under", their breakthrough Mtv release. After seeing John Petrucci play the guitar like it was some grotesque extension of his own body, I feel like burning all of my guitars so I don't get any more of my musical filth on them.
What was funny to me about the concert was that James LaBrie spoke to the crowd entirely in English; frequently asking them questions, and then looked disappointed at the lack of response...from a JAPANESE audience!
I wish my camera took good pictures in low light; I would have shown y'all the eclectic group of people that comprised this audience. Teenagers, college students, and...businessmen??? Yep, men in full business suits stood right in front of me head-banging to every tune; and I'm talkin' 45-55 year old men. You can drink at events like this too, so here are these drunk salarymen swaying like those plastic and rubber band toys that when you push the bottom in, they collapse, and shouting at the stage in Japanese. It was hilarious! If I hadn't brought those binoculars, I would have been staring at them the whole time.