Tonight, we were going to have dinner with Ozaki-san and Terry-san at Kisoji Himonya. Ozaki-san and Terry-san are close friends of Ari’s parents, and are also the parents of Kumi-sensei that we met a few days back during Aina’s ballet class. She would also be joining us later after her rehearsal was finished.
Kisoji is a well-known shabu-shabu and sukiyaki restaurant in Japan. They have the English website, explaining what is shabu-shabu and how to to eat it. But in that website, they don’t list the Himonya branch, not sure why.
We were going to take the train with Shuta and Jessi to the restaurant in Meguro area, but it was drizzling and we got lazy and hailed a cab instead. We thought it was going to be faster, but maybe we got in during rush hour, we got into sooo many traffic jams along the way… We ended up arriving late at the restaurant — almost 20 minutes late! — and were the last one to arrive before Kumi-sensei.
After the customary greetings and gift trading, we started to eat immediately.
The restaurant was a traditional one. The waiters who were all older women, wore kimono and were very prim and propper.
The dinner was nothing short of spectacular. Every dish was unique. And the wagyu beef shabu shabu was sublime. I think it was the first time we’ve had wagyu as shabu-shabu.
When Kumi-san arrived, Aina gave her a gift that we got for her from Singapore, which was an orchid shaped brooch. Too bad that we forgot to take pictures of it…
Albeit the slight language barrier, Kumi-sensei, Aina and I talked quite a bit about ballet in Japan. She showed us pictures and short movies on her phone of various performances that she had done, including some black/white swans! We are so gratefull to have her share stories about her ballet career and how she got to where she is now.
We were too busy eating and discussing ballet that we forgot to take pictures. So, it was a good thing that before we left, the restaurant offered us their group photo service. One of the waiters took a group photo of us and printed a copy for every family. It was a nice gesture that captured our memorable dinner, too bad Ari’s eyes were closed in the picture.
Oh, one more thing… Outside of the restaurant, we were hailing taxis in the middle of the traffic and hurrily saying good byes that we forgot to say bye bye to Shuta! So sorry, Shuta! We’ll do a proper goodbye on our next visit, then.
For all the photos while we were in Tokyo, they are in Tokyo 2017 photo album. Other entries of this trip is at Japan 2017 Trip: Ballet Competitions.
