Tuesday, September 14, 2004
Another Weekend of Food and Drink
Everything I do lately seems to relate in some way or another too meeting my seemingly constant needs for sustenance. Last weekend was no exception.
Friday Night: I had seen a Hawaiian-style restaurant advertised, and a few weeks ago walked passed it outside of business hours. Intruiged, with Kat in tow I took a closer look. Then we went inside. Then we ate and drank our fill of Hawaiian goodness.
Cocktails with half a tropical garden sticking out the top: Check
Waitresses in Hawaiian-print dresses: Check
All kinds of funky things stuck on the walls: Check
Tasty food: Check
All in all, it was a pretty cool place. The servings were large and tasty and the music didn't get too irritating as I suspected it would. If you are ever in Kannai and want some Hawaiian vittles, I recommend you pay a visit to Sun Aloha.
Of course, one cannot complete a Friday night with mere Hawaiian cuisine alone! At least not with a Jazz bar about a block away. So off we toddled to this little bar which was about 50% jazz bar/50% record collection. I am talking wall to wall vinyl - and not the flooring. The fact that it was run by a guy who can be (and was) described as "a Japanese Harvey Keitel" was a mere bonus.
I was surprised to learn that the clientele was mostly middle-aged women, but at the same time the drinks menu was comprised of whiskeys, bourbons and imported beer. Not being a huge fan of bourbon, I worked my way through a few of the local, and overseas brews. The only disappointment being the inclusion of Fosters. Australian for beer, my arse. Of course, there were many beers I was unable to sample, so I believe a return trip is in order....
Saturday (after a late start) we went into Sakuragicho, and wandered down to the waterfront park. The gaggle of skaties that are normally larking about on boards and bikes had gathered for some kind of skatie pow-wow, so we wandered on to the Cosmos Clock Ferris Wheel - once the tallest in the world, it is still an impressive structure at 100 metres in diameter, and it takes about 15 minutes to go all the way around. Which, incidentally is probably a little under half the time we stood in line for the damn thing. Although, with a planned trip to Disneyland in the near future, training for the 'endurance standing in a line' event is probably a good thing to have.
Once again, it was ultimately food and drink that had brought us to the area - with the Yokohama Hard Rock Cafe only a short walk from the ferris wheel. This of course means more cocktails, potato skins and a fatty-boom-batty bacon-cheeseburger. Awwww yeah. The addition of other patrons, including the unambigously gay white male couple sitting nearby - not to mention the badly-dancing staff made it an entertaining and satisfying night. The drinks really helped.
Sunday, surprisingly did not revolve around food and drink. Instead, we went into Harajuku to visit the Meiji Jingu Shrine, to honour the Japanese war dead who kept Kat's grandfather in a POW camp and then stood around for a few minutes looking at all the quirkily dressed kids who hang near the shrine entrance. We then wandered around the funky/retro/kooky clothes shopping district before walking into Shibuya.
Shibuya contained two places of interest on Sunday, the first being the aptly named Tower Records (all 7 stories of it). I managed to walk out with only 2 purchases - which was a particularly strong display of restraint on my part.
Our other port of call was one of the numerous, and growing Hub franchises nearby. With 75 minutes of happy hour remaining, we timed our arrival quite well (naturally, it would have been better if we had arrived with all 120 minutes of the somewhat deceptively named happy hour at our disposal, but you can't win them all). An hour it may not have been, but with half-price cocktails and mixed drinks, it was happy. Of course, with my pending return to work the next day and a dramatic rise in drink prices following the end of happy hour, we high-tailed it outta there and made our way back home.
I am quite inclined to bitch about work again at this point, but this post is pretty huge in itself, I will save that discussion for another time.
Friday Night: I had seen a Hawaiian-style restaurant advertised, and a few weeks ago walked passed it outside of business hours. Intruiged, with Kat in tow I took a closer look. Then we went inside. Then we ate and drank our fill of Hawaiian goodness.
Cocktails with half a tropical garden sticking out the top: Check
Waitresses in Hawaiian-print dresses: Check
All kinds of funky things stuck on the walls: Check
Tasty food: Check
All in all, it was a pretty cool place. The servings were large and tasty and the music didn't get too irritating as I suspected it would. If you are ever in Kannai and want some Hawaiian vittles, I recommend you pay a visit to Sun Aloha.
Of course, one cannot complete a Friday night with mere Hawaiian cuisine alone! At least not with a Jazz bar about a block away. So off we toddled to this little bar which was about 50% jazz bar/50% record collection. I am talking wall to wall vinyl - and not the flooring. The fact that it was run by a guy who can be (and was) described as "a Japanese Harvey Keitel" was a mere bonus.
I was surprised to learn that the clientele was mostly middle-aged women, but at the same time the drinks menu was comprised of whiskeys, bourbons and imported beer. Not being a huge fan of bourbon, I worked my way through a few of the local, and overseas brews. The only disappointment being the inclusion of Fosters. Australian for beer, my arse. Of course, there were many beers I was unable to sample, so I believe a return trip is in order....
Saturday (after a late start) we went into Sakuragicho, and wandered down to the waterfront park. The gaggle of skaties that are normally larking about on boards and bikes had gathered for some kind of skatie pow-wow, so we wandered on to the Cosmos Clock Ferris Wheel - once the tallest in the world, it is still an impressive structure at 100 metres in diameter, and it takes about 15 minutes to go all the way around. Which, incidentally is probably a little under half the time we stood in line for the damn thing. Although, with a planned trip to Disneyland in the near future, training for the 'endurance standing in a line' event is probably a good thing to have.
Once again, it was ultimately food and drink that had brought us to the area - with the Yokohama Hard Rock Cafe only a short walk from the ferris wheel. This of course means more cocktails, potato skins and a fatty-boom-batty bacon-cheeseburger. Awwww yeah. The addition of other patrons, including the unambigously gay white male couple sitting nearby - not to mention the badly-dancing staff made it an entertaining and satisfying night. The drinks really helped.
Sunday, surprisingly did not revolve around food and drink. Instead, we went into Harajuku to visit the Meiji Jingu Shrine, to honour the Japanese war dead who kept Kat's grandfather in a POW camp and then stood around for a few minutes looking at all the quirkily dressed kids who hang near the shrine entrance. We then wandered around the funky/retro/kooky clothes shopping district before walking into Shibuya.
Shibuya contained two places of interest on Sunday, the first being the aptly named Tower Records (all 7 stories of it). I managed to walk out with only 2 purchases - which was a particularly strong display of restraint on my part.
Our other port of call was one of the numerous, and growing Hub franchises nearby. With 75 minutes of happy hour remaining, we timed our arrival quite well (naturally, it would have been better if we had arrived with all 120 minutes of the somewhat deceptively named happy hour at our disposal, but you can't win them all). An hour it may not have been, but with half-price cocktails and mixed drinks, it was happy. Of course, with my pending return to work the next day and a dramatic rise in drink prices following the end of happy hour, we high-tailed it outta there and made our way back home.
I am quite inclined to bitch about work again at this point, but this post is pretty huge in itself, I will save that discussion for another time.
# posted by Nils @ 1:55 PM 
