Itadakimasu

At dinner with my parents last night, we were talking about the dinners at Sumiyoshi, the ryokan we stayed at in Takayama. I haven't gotten around to uploading those pictures yet, but I dug this one out:

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It's not the best picture of Kate, but she does provide a sense of scale... It was a great meal-- sashimi, tempura, beef cooked at the table, fish, pickles, miso soup, and probably some other things I'm forgetting.

There was also this from the next morning:

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Which really just begs to be captioned "I Can Has Toaster," but discretion is the better part of valor.

Breakfast was served in the room, and while I decided to be daring and try the Japanese-style breakfast, Kate opted for the Western option. She was absolutely delighted when the proprietor came in with a basket of bread and a toaster, so she could get the bread exactly the way she likes it...

The Japanese-style breakfast was actually quite good, though not necessarily what I would've thought of as breakfast-- cold grilled fish, rice, miso soup, and vegetables in miso paste grilled on a magnolia leaf. The only conventionally breakfast-like thing was the eggs, and I don't like eggs, so I could've done without that. The miso was great, though.

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I've never had a Japanese-style breakfast in Japan (entirely because I've never been there!), but at the occasional hotel in Europe that offers it, it's usually what I have. It's great. Never had it served in-room, however.

If the fish was just warm, it'd sound like a really good breakfast too me. Good balance between starch and protein. Not too heavy either.

Which really just begs to be captioned "I Can Has Toaster," but discretion is the better part of valor.

So basically you're saying you wanted to make an lolKate?

Japanese-style breakfast is a really good habit to get into. I prefer it over European-style, especially miso soup and pickled vegetables. Unfortunately, my Japanese wife prefers European over Japanese, so we usually end up with bread, cheese and yoghurt.

Caption: "B nais, I hasa naiff."

By Johan Larson (not verified) on 24 Sep 2007 #permalink

There's a very simple rule for taking pictures of things at ground level - they usually look dumb if you're standing up when you take them. I learned this from taking pictures of kids. Tops of heads lose there appeal after a while - get down on your knees to take good pictures (or, given your height, even farther).

Having said that, nice to see a picture of Kate - I was starting to wonder if she was a fictional character :).