http://tourism.metro.tokyo.jp/chinese_t/webmaga/2004autumn/menu05.html
In a nutshell, it's a dinner boat trip in Tokyo Bay. The dinner is okonomiyaki---which literally means "eat what you like". The boat had little grills for people to cook their food on. Read on and you'll get full explanation of the evening.
We boarded the boat at 4:30pm. With it's low ceilings, most people couldn't stand up. Once we removed our shoes, we sat down on tatami mats around small table grills. It was a beautiful and balmy evening. Around two grills we had six adults and four kids. Here's Mia, myself and Rie-san on the yakatabune. Rie-san is my Japanese professor. She is utterly delightful and friendly.
At our table we sat near a Japanese family and a family we know through Amazon.com.jp. This is Yasuda-san, seasoning our grill with oil. Can you already tell what a character he is? He did all the cooking for us. By the end of the night we had named him our "iron chef".
He then made a circle of cabbage and started cooking the fish eggs in the center. His son Kotaro-kuhn looks skeptical about his dad's cooking ability...
Yasuda-san had mixed in the pancake-like batter to the rest of the ingredients and now we're cooking! To be quite honest, the mixture looked like a huge splat of pink, bubbling vomit. During this, we are seeing the view of Tokyo Bay before sunset.
Miyuki, Kotaro-kuhn, Mia-chan and Joss taking a little time for the paparazzi...
The dinner actually tasted great, similar to a savory seafood pancake. We also ordered yakisoba noodles for the kids, they weren't too sure they wanted to try the pink mystery pancake. After sunset, the party was in full swing. The boy in orange, Joss, started table dancing while whirling around pink washcloths over his head. It was quite a show! We were laughing like fools.
We had a fun time. The Japanese family lives close to us and we're planning to get together soon. Kotaro and Mia are the same age. We hope to do the yakatabune again with Aaron-san and visitors...so book your tickets now!
