Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Nihon FTW (日本 フォ デ ウィン)



Greetings! I don't know what's happening but, on the recent weeks I had more contact with the Japanese culture than I've had within the last two years.

Maybe It's because of the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear plant, three disasters occured in the Land of the Rising Sun a couple of weeks ago.

Maybe it's because of the new TF2 stuff (Japanese weapons and hats have been added to the game, as well as some exclusive items which you can purchase to help the victims of the tsunami).

Maybe it's because some friends have started studying Japanese, a language that attracts me and could be my fifth language... if I had enough patience - which I don't.

By the way, who could imagine Steve would know so many languages? Steve (for those who don't know him) is our English professor at University, a kinda cool guy who teaches us some history of English language and culture. Long story short, it happened that these friends of mine who study Japanese wrote something on the blackboard before the class (their names?) and then Steve came and revealed that he used to be a teacher of Japanese.

The following week, Rafa wrote 本日, which was immediately noticed and corrected by Steve. Sorry, Rafa, but it was funny to check how a Grammar Nazi can be a Hoygan in another language.

The other anecdote I want to tell is the adventure I lived last Monday. My friend Hyruleoflink (I'm not sure if he wants to reveal his name, so let's just call him "the Elf") started to look for Japanese restaurants in Castellón. We happened to find one - Sakura, in 4, Artana Street. We liked the food so much that we decided to look for more, this time with buffet so we could try every meal.

So, Hyruleoflink, his sister and I went to Valencia in search of good Japanese restaurants. We compared a few ones and chose Ao-Yama (3, Joaquin Costa Street).


It was the kind of buffet where you don't go get the food but recieve on your table what you ask for. We chose that in order to know the exact name of what we were eating. The service was great, although we noticed one of the two waitresses who served us was Chinese instead of Japanese. Not a big deal, as the cook seemed to be a purebred Japanese.

We were eating for almost two hours, and we tasted almost everything on the menu. I just can't recommend anything, because everything was delicious. Well, except for the veal with honey, which was tasteless. But everything else was superb.

I bet the following pictures will whet your appetite. I'm sorry I don't have pictures for everything we ate, but the food was so mouthwatering we completely forgot about taking photos!


Skewered chicken (yakitori)


Chicken in orange


Loin with teriyaki sauce


Veal with honey


Shakemaki (salmon maki) and tekamaki (tuna maki)


Next time we will try another restaurant, so we can compare. There are lots and lots of them in Valencia. If only there was one in my town...

Have a nice Magdalena holiday week! Sayonara!

1 comment:

  1. Hyruleoflink has posted his version of the story (it's in Spanish): http://llanuradehyrule.blogspot.com/2011/04/de-japoneses-va-la-cosa.html

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