Japan, Day 4
Today was gorgeous. A little nip in the air, cotton candy clouds in the sky. If I had my wits about me, I would've taken a picture out my window of the sunrise.
Shige, mentioend yesterday, has a wife who makes clothes that she sells. She made Cora a dress that was really nice.
I think it's a bit big for her right now, but she'll grow into it soon enough. I will get the link to the dress shop from Shige later and post it, if anyone wants to snag some dresses like that.
DINNER
Tonight, I was taken out by most of the folks from the lab. I guess on your second trip, there isn't as much fuss over keeping you constantly entertained. That's fine by me. I needed the rest. I was glad that we could all go out, though.
We went to a restaurant called NORI. It served traditional Japanese dishes and the chef paired each dish with a sake.
This was apparently not the kind of sake you buy at the grocery store either. If it is, I need to shop at your grocery store.
Course 1
We were served a small dish that had (from left to right) baby bamboo, lotus root, and spinach.
The bamboo had an interesting flavor, but didn't really appeal to me. The lotus root, though, had a nice texture and a flavor like toasted peanuts. It had a light soy flavor, too. The spinach was pretty typical.
Course 2
Second course was tempura-fried "wild plants" and mushroom caps. The "plants" were pretty good, the mushroom caps were excellent. There was some coarse ground salt to accompany. The sake for this was well paired... very light.
Courses 3 & 4
The third course was a tofu and pork dish. I couldn't get a picture before it was all gone. The fourth course was also pork, but with button mushrooms.
Last course involved udon noodles in a light broth. The sake was very bold.
Guests
Here are the folks that were at dinner.
This is me with Hirano-san, one of the lead designers of ThinkPad. He was the designer for the X300.
This is me and Okada-san. He is a usability guy and will soon be completing his doctorate.
This is Ariyoshi-san is one of our graphic designers.
This is Takahashi-san and Osaki-san. Takahashi-san is the manager of Design for Lenovo Japan. Osaki-san is an industrial design contractor. He went to school in New Zealand, so his english is great.
This is Nakada-san and Hirano-san. Nakada-san is another industrial designer.
Finally, this is Kimura-san (Shige). He is the graphic design lead for the team in Yamato.
More pictures to come! I love this Blackberry that I am testing. The camera is great and it has a flash on it, too.
Shige, mentioend yesterday, has a wife who makes clothes that she sells. She made Cora a dress that was really nice.
I think it's a bit big for her right now, but she'll grow into it soon enough. I will get the link to the dress shop from Shige later and post it, if anyone wants to snag some dresses like that.
DINNER
Tonight, I was taken out by most of the folks from the lab. I guess on your second trip, there isn't as much fuss over keeping you constantly entertained. That's fine by me. I needed the rest. I was glad that we could all go out, though.
We went to a restaurant called NORI. It served traditional Japanese dishes and the chef paired each dish with a sake.
This was apparently not the kind of sake you buy at the grocery store either. If it is, I need to shop at your grocery store.
Course 1
We were served a small dish that had (from left to right) baby bamboo, lotus root, and spinach.
The bamboo had an interesting flavor, but didn't really appeal to me. The lotus root, though, had a nice texture and a flavor like toasted peanuts. It had a light soy flavor, too. The spinach was pretty typical.
Course 2
Second course was tempura-fried "wild plants" and mushroom caps. The "plants" were pretty good, the mushroom caps were excellent. There was some coarse ground salt to accompany. The sake for this was well paired... very light.
Courses 3 & 4
The third course was a tofu and pork dish. I couldn't get a picture before it was all gone. The fourth course was also pork, but with button mushrooms.
Last course involved udon noodles in a light broth. The sake was very bold.
Guests
Here are the folks that were at dinner.
This is me with Hirano-san, one of the lead designers of ThinkPad. He was the designer for the X300.
This is me and Okada-san. He is a usability guy and will soon be completing his doctorate.
This is Ariyoshi-san is one of our graphic designers.
This is Takahashi-san and Osaki-san. Takahashi-san is the manager of Design for Lenovo Japan. Osaki-san is an industrial design contractor. He went to school in New Zealand, so his english is great.
This is Nakada-san and Hirano-san. Nakada-san is another industrial designer.
Finally, this is Kimura-san (Shige). He is the graphic design lead for the team in Yamato.
More pictures to come! I love this Blackberry that I am testing. The camera is great and it has a flash on it, too.