One night in Urayasu / 浦安の夜

Last Sunday, a friend of ours (Yukio, the best man at my wedding) invited us to go for a drive around the Boso Peninsula with his girlfriend. Since our friend lives in Urayasu in Chiba Prefecture and wanted to get an early start, he suggested staying over at his place the night before. So, after work on Saturday, I made a short trip home and then we left our house to go to Urayasu (it's about an hour train ride). Yukio and his girlfriend met us at the train station and immediately took us to a neighborhood restaurant for dinner. I forgot the name of the restaurant but we ordered a large onion salad, hiya-yakko, grilled head of yellowtail, assorted sashimi plate, and an mixed yakitori platter. I forgot to take a picture of the hiya-yakko which is a cold tofu dish topped with ginger, green onions, bonita flakes, with a dash of soy-sauce.


日曜日の２９日に友達の幸男と彼の彼女と房総半島にドライブに行きました。朝早く出発したいから、彼が前日にうちに泊ったら？と勧められたので、土曜日仕事終わってから浦安に行きました。幸男と彼女が駅で私たちを出迎え、そのまま近くの居酒屋に行きました。店の名前忘れましたが、注文したのは、オニオンサラダ、冷奴、ブリカマ、刺身の盛り合わせとやきとりの盛り合わせ。

Onion Salad

オニオンサラダ

Grilled head of yellowtail

ブリカマ

Assorted sashimi platter

刺身の盛り合わせ

Assorted yakitori platter

やきとりの盛り合わせ

"HELP! They're eating my body!" cried the mackerel.

"助けて！私の体が彼らに食われてます！"　と叫んでるアジ。

After dinner, we went to a karaoke box and spent an hour singing. Mikako and I sang quite a few Bon Jovi tunes and the two singles by current popular idol group Shuchishin. Unlike the U.S., you don't sing on a stage in front of strangers so there's no worries about how badly we sing.

食事の後は軽くカラオケに行きました。僕は美香子とボン・ジョヴィの曲なん曲かと今流行りの羞恥心の二曲も歌いました。カラオケボックスなので、どんなに下手でも気にしない。

Tomorrow we leave for the Boso Peninsula. We tried to go to sleep around 1:00am but one of us would not let us sleep. Not intentionally of course, but Yukio had the loudest snores I've ever heard. I don't think Mikako or Yukio's girlfriend could really catch a wink. To think, my snoring used to be just as bad according to my family and friends. I must ask for their forgiveness!! If I knew Yukio's snores were going to be this loud, we should have caught the first train in the morning on Sunday!

明日は暴走半島のドライブだ。一時位に寝ようとしましたが、一人だけが私たちを寝かしてくれなかった。幸男のいびきが！こんなにうるさいと思うわなかった。美香子と幸男の彼女はほとんど寝れなかった。朝五時半に起きなければ駄目だったので。。。何か、昔、僕も家族と友達に自分のいびきが凄くうるさいと言われた。幸男のいびきを聞いて、家族と一緒に旅に行ってくれた親友に深くお詫び申し上げたいです。こんな事になるのなら、始発で来たほうがまだましだった。