Thanksgiving Out and About

Keeping with the traditions from the old country I found a way to celebrate Thanksgiving. No Thanksgiving is complete without a fine turkey dinner. Seeing that Japan does not celebrate the holiday, there are not a lot of seasonal events to attend. Watching an American Football game is all but out of the question; unless I want to track down a pub that shows replays. None the less, I was able to book dinner at a nice restaurant called Beacon.

I had actually been looking forward to a pleasant Thanksgiving dinner. It has been a while since I eat an American style dinner. I like all the different kinds of food Tokyo offers but sometimes I want a good old American meal. I can only eat so many rice balls and lunch boxes until my body begs for something closer to home.

My gal has not had Thanksgiving dinner in several years so she was excited as me. She confessed that she had missed eating a nice American holiday dinner. Although, I remember the last time she cooked Thanksgiving dinner we had baby octopus as a featured side dish. This year there will no cooking at home. I guess the fast paced Tokyo lifestyle has rubbed off on both of us because the thought of cooking Thanksgiving dinner sent chills up our spines. There was no question that eating out for Thanksgiving dinner was the only option which would sit well with both of us.

The evening got off to a rough start. Our reservation was not until 8:30 pm so I decided to wait until around 4:45 pm to get ready. This did not sit well with the gal who got off work around 5:00 pm. She wanted to hang out in central for a while before we had dinner. She never likes to wait on anyone. When it comes to waiting on me there is no room for mistake or no extra time to wait on me. She got a little upset and talked a little shit but she got over it soon enough.

We made it to Shibuya about 7:30 pm. Seeing that we had some time to kill we made our way to a First(Fucking) Kitchen for some coffee. The coffee at this chain fast food joint is almost as bad as McDonald`s. On a cold night in Tokyo the quality of the coffee takes a back seat to the over powering desire for warm energy giving liquid. This also gave me a chance to get the gal in a happy holiday mood. Conversation and funny off color comments are always the perfect way to get M.K. all smiles and up for an enjoyable evening. Over the years, I have learned how to handle this female. It takes a lot of throwing my pride out the window and being a mellow fellow to cheer her up.

After the both of us were just as happy as a pair of coons on trash day, we made our way over to Beacons. The place really was a step above what I am used to experiencing. I felt a little out of place in such a classy joint. The people working there all spoke very good English; which was a big surprise to me. Whenever I go out I make sure to remember my very rough Japanese so I can order. Self embarrassment was not needed as the staff spoke in Japanese to my gal and in English to me. The place had a real post-modern urban feel. The gal was just all shit and giggles that I took her to a decent place. It is always nice when the gal is pleased with the choice of venue.

I am not really a wine drinker(this changed as of 2010) but it appeared that ordering wine was a must for this dinner. The gal was all about ordering an entire bottle of 2000 vintage. Not my style, at the time, but it made her happy so I went with the flow. I never know how to react to the wine guy. They always act as if I am about to have to best drink in the world. They hold the wine bottle like a baby. You would think that they made the stuff themselves.

The dinner itself was amazing for the most part. A full five course dinner complete with all the fixings. I had duck liver for the first time. I must say it was really good. It melts in your month. The only thing I did not like about the duck liver is that it was served with a thick soup that was just a little too sweet.Although, we both got a damn large amount of turkey. I was expecting maybe a few slices but they brought out something like seven or eight large sized pieces of turkey each! It was prime turkey as well. The stuffing left much to be desired. It was just too sweet. They had a apple sauce theme going though out the meal which was not working at all. In fact, I have never seen someone add apple sauce to turkey stuffing. Overall, the meal was very good and I got stuffed.

Everything went down very good. This is the first Thanksgiving in years that something crazy did not happen. I spent a wonderful evening with the gal and eat a great dinner. No one got hit with a beer bottle or any other DYI weapon. Another reason to like Tokyo: Can have Thanksgiving dinner with no one doing anything crazy.