The Three Musketeers
Alrighty, another bit of spare time, another blog - easily got another one in the pipes! This one will be a little shorter than the others, but thematically it's mostly relevant.
Viktor's birthday peered around the horizon this month, and with that he wanted a couple of things - sushi (preferably all you can eat), and some drinks. David Viktor and myself have styled ourselves somewhat as the Three Mustketeers, and so it was only fitting that we made this happen.
A sushi academy was located in Shinjuku, one that does 90 minute sessions of all you can eat sushi, both to give the students an opportunity to practice in a high speed environment without sacrificing quality, and also to give people good quality sushi at a-not-too-dear price.
Seating ourselves (and undoing our belts), we started ordering sushi with wild abandon, at best 50% sure of what we were getting. All number of varieties came our way, from mackerel and tuna to sea urchin and octopus. All of it was super fresh, well made, and as one comes to expect from sushi in Japan, absolutely delicious!
We were also intrigued by the presence of french fries and fried chicken on the menu, so in the interest of making the most of this peculiarity, I ordered a couple dishes. Not what we were expecting by any means, but very tasty to be sure!
As our 90 minutes came closer to the end, we made sure to tick off the last few options we hadn't already had, and so when the final dishes were being delivered, it seemed we had lost track of what we ordered. Unfortunately for us, for every dish leftover there was a 200 yen penalty. Not one to waste food, but also too full to fit any more, I bet David an icecream that he couldn't eat the last dozen pieces in two minutes. Taking advantage of David's competitive streak, he rose to the challenge, and I am happy to say I now owe him an icecream - still cheaper than our penalty would have been!
While David was now full to the brim with sushi, Viktor thought he was getting away scotch-free. Unbeknownst to him, David had arranged for a little 'cake' to be made, thinking it might have just been a slightly more elaborate piece of sushi or some such. This it was not, and a large plate was brought to Viktor, adorned with a mountain of sushi, and Happy Birthday written in Japanese ume plum jam.
Several profanities were uttered by Viktor as he measured up the amount of fish and rice he was going to have to consume, while David and I (who by now were gorging on the in house soft serve icecream and thus too full to be of anymore help) sat by, chuckling.
Kudos to Viktor, he managed to down it all, and we left the sushi academy feeling very full and content, with several food comas following shortly after.
The next day we had celebratory birthday drinkies with some of our collective friends, which formed an ideal opportunity for a photo of our little triumvirate:
The concert itself was great, not being a huge expert in either piece, it was very well performed, and we had excellent seats (second row from the front), so we were totally in the action!
The conductor, Kenichiro Kobayashi, is a hugely famous figure in Japanese music, and an absolute character at that. His expressions were completely OTT, and he was the absolute quintessence of an older Japanese man, with longish grey hair, a joyful face, and full of energy - he made for some funny viewing whilst listening to the music!
All in all, Viktor's birthday weekend was a solid one, with much fun being had by everyone!
As an addendum, (also because I forgot to put it in the blog themed around free things) there was a super blue blood moon a couple weeks ago, a once in a century or something like that event, so Claire (again, here is her infinitely better composed and thought out blog) and I headed to Roppongi and the Mori Hills to see how we could photograph it. I had taken along all my photographic gear to ensure the best possible results, which are below, shot at 200mm, f2.8, ISO quite high (and a reasonable amount of tinkering in Lightroom after). It was a good opportunity to dust off the astro skills (though not as challenging as stars given how big the moon was), but it was also really cool to show Claire some bits and pieces of photography, but to see her results you may need to head to her blog!
And with that, the latest saga of the Three Musketeers is wrapped up; with David in Palau for the rest of the month it is just Viktor and I holding the fort - but there will be more adventures to come I promise!
There is one more blog to come in the immediate future, one that I foresee as being much more photo heavy (even than usual!)
But for now, stay frosty - Tokyo is sitting on a real feel of around negative 8C in the evenings!
Troy
Viktor's birthday peered around the horizon this month, and with that he wanted a couple of things - sushi (preferably all you can eat), and some drinks. David Viktor and myself have styled ourselves somewhat as the Three Mustketeers, and so it was only fitting that we made this happen.
A sushi academy was located in Shinjuku, one that does 90 minute sessions of all you can eat sushi, both to give the students an opportunity to practice in a high speed environment without sacrificing quality, and also to give people good quality sushi at a-not-too-dear price.
Seating ourselves (and undoing our belts), we started ordering sushi with wild abandon, at best 50% sure of what we were getting. All number of varieties came our way, from mackerel and tuna to sea urchin and octopus. All of it was super fresh, well made, and as one comes to expect from sushi in Japan, absolutely delicious!
We were also intrigued by the presence of french fries and fried chicken on the menu, so in the interest of making the most of this peculiarity, I ordered a couple dishes. Not what we were expecting by any means, but very tasty to be sure!
As our 90 minutes came closer to the end, we made sure to tick off the last few options we hadn't already had, and so when the final dishes were being delivered, it seemed we had lost track of what we ordered. Unfortunately for us, for every dish leftover there was a 200 yen penalty. Not one to waste food, but also too full to fit any more, I bet David an icecream that he couldn't eat the last dozen pieces in two minutes. Taking advantage of David's competitive streak, he rose to the challenge, and I am happy to say I now owe him an icecream - still cheaper than our penalty would have been!
While David was now full to the brim with sushi, Viktor thought he was getting away scotch-free. Unbeknownst to him, David had arranged for a little 'cake' to be made, thinking it might have just been a slightly more elaborate piece of sushi or some such. This it was not, and a large plate was brought to Viktor, adorned with a mountain of sushi, and Happy Birthday written in Japanese ume plum jam.
Several profanities were uttered by Viktor as he measured up the amount of fish and rice he was going to have to consume, while David and I (who by now were gorging on the in house soft serve icecream and thus too full to be of anymore help) sat by, chuckling.
Kudos to Viktor, he managed to down it all, and we left the sushi academy feeling very full and content, with several food comas following shortly after.
The next day we had celebratory birthday drinkies with some of our collective friends, which formed an ideal opportunity for a photo of our little triumvirate:
 |
| As a very good friend of mine once said, "Troy, you are actually quite tall!" Not that you'd know it next to these two giants who are a full 10 and 15 cm taller than me
Following on from the drinks, on the day of Viktor's actual birthday, which was a public holiday (National Foundation Day), Viktor and I went to Suntory Hall to see the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra perform Beethoven's 7th Symphony, and Stravinsky's Le sacre du printemps. This was a concert for which he was fortunate enough to have received two free tickets, and so we thought it a good opportunity (why not?) For me also it was a trip down memory lane, as in late 2011 I went to the same venue with my host family to see Beethoven's 9th symphony performed - obviously I had to get a photo of the then and now comparison:
 |
 |
| You'll notice the waterfalls have been turned off |
The conductor, Kenichiro Kobayashi, is a hugely famous figure in Japanese music, and an absolute character at that. His expressions were completely OTT, and he was the absolute quintessence of an older Japanese man, with longish grey hair, a joyful face, and full of energy - he made for some funny viewing whilst listening to the music!
All in all, Viktor's birthday weekend was a solid one, with much fun being had by everyone!
As an addendum, (also because I forgot to put it in the blog themed around free things) there was a super blue blood moon a couple weeks ago, a once in a century or something like that event, so Claire (again, here is her infinitely better composed and thought out blog) and I headed to Roppongi and the Mori Hills to see how we could photograph it. I had taken along all my photographic gear to ensure the best possible results, which are below, shot at 200mm, f2.8, ISO quite high (and a reasonable amount of tinkering in Lightroom after). It was a good opportunity to dust off the astro skills (though not as challenging as stars given how big the moon was), but it was also really cool to show Claire some bits and pieces of photography, but to see her results you may need to head to her blog!
 |
| Partial eclipse in process ft. lens flare |
And with that, the latest saga of the Three Musketeers is wrapped up; with David in Palau for the rest of the month it is just Viktor and I holding the fort - but there will be more adventures to come I promise!
There is one more blog to come in the immediate future, one that I foresee as being much more photo heavy (even than usual!)
But for now, stay frosty - Tokyo is sitting on a real feel of around negative 8C in the evenings!
Troy
Comments
Post a Comment