We had a marvelous time last night meeting Alyssa's coworkers and students!  We arrived a bit early....we were a bit worried about finding the right trains and getting the transfers correct...but in reality, we had no problem at all finding her office building.  It's a giant pink building beside a teeny-tiny McDonalds.  Her office is on the 5th floor.  We got to meet her manager and 2 of her coworkers and then we set out for dinner with 3 of her female students and another employee, Liam.  Liam is from Seattle and he's teaching here just like Alyssa.  We went to one of Alyssa's favorite places to eat in Nisshin....sort of a bar/restaurant/pub type place.  She knew all the workers and they all greeted her, laughing and giggling in rapid Japanese. After many introductions, more giggling and bowing...we shed our shoes and climbed up into the loft-area where our tables were located.  The tables were low to the ground and we sat on cushions around the table.  At least there was a recessed area under the table for our feet, so I didn't have to kneel on my knees all night...but I noticed  that most of the Japanese girls did.  They brought out our drinks and Alyssa's students were in charge of ordering the food.  They ordered about 8 different foods for us to try!  First, they brought out a giant slice of raw mackerel and then the waitress got a giant blow-torch and lit it up and cooked the fish right on our table!  It was something to see, for sure!  The fish tasted very fishy....but I put some sweet soy sauce on it and thought it was quite good! Yes, I did!  I ate fish!!!  haha!  Then they brought 2 large salad bowls.  The salads had all kinds of greens, diakon sprouts, lettuce, arugula, cherry tomatoes, and there were tiny bits of potato salad mixed in and it had a creamy white dressing.  I ate a lot of greens!  Then they brought out some soup.  The soup had a thick gray jelly-like substance in it called Congyac (spelling??) that looked nasty, but tasted very good!  Once I got past the jello-like texture, I enjoyed it quite well.  The soup also had large carrots, diakon and tiny pieces of beef in it...and the broth was very rich and beefy. Next came a big plate of tofu covered in Norri strips and Kim chi.  I have never had Kim chi...turns out....I LOVE KIM CHI!!  It was so yummy!   Then they brought some small pieces of fried chicken...which tasted like....fried chicken nuggets!  haha!  Somethings are universal, I suppose.  After that, they brought out a giant sushi platter with about 6 kinds of fish.  I passed on the raw fish...but really enjoyed the diakon and there was this green leaf that was a vibrant neon green....and you take that green leaf and roll up some diakon (Japanese white radish- tastes very sweet and not radish-like at all) and you eat it like a little leaf-salad sandwich!  OH my goodness!!! SO good!!!!  Very herby and refreshing!  There was a seafood pizza....a pizza made on Naan bread covered in fish and cheese.  I passed on this dish because I am not supposed to have bread or cheese...but it looked tasty!   The next course was some type of fried eggs with diakon on top and some sort of sweet fish broth.  I wasn't really hungry anymore...so I didn't sample that, but Alyssa professes that it's one of her favorite dishes.  I just couldn't wrap my head around it.  haha!  After meal, we had to leave in a hurry because the last train left the station bound for Sakae by 11:30pm and we were more than 10 miles from our hotel....NOT a walk I wanted to make.  We ended up making the first train, but missed the last train at our transfer station and had to walk about an extra 30 minutes to get back to our hotel.  It was a nice walk though.....and we got to see the night-time lights and bars and clubs all lit up....along with the Farris wheel!  By the time we got back to our hotel room, it was after 1am and we had plans to meet up with Alyssa at 7am tomorrow morning for a full day of sight-seeing.  I forgot to bring my camera cord to upload pictures to the laptop....and this lap top doesn't have a drive for the memory card...so I have over 300 pictures to share....but no way to get them out of my camera just yet.  I'm going to ask Alyssa today to see if she has one we can borrow...and if so, I'll post pictures of last night's meal.  It was a meal like I've never experienced before...very exotic and very good!  The warmth of the Japanese people we've met so far is very charming.....everyone is so polite and accommodating.  And I can't get over how clean everything is!!  I am excited and waiting on Alyssa to get here this morning to take us on another adventure!
Sayonora for now!!!  <3