Intermixi TGS Tour - Day 6, Part 2

We had a great time in Odaiba, but that was only about half of our free day. We still had two other things to do to finish out our day. And actually to finish out X's trip to Japan. He and another from our tour, Greg, were set to leave the very next day. Our first evening adventure was to meet a very good friend and his girlfriend (now fiancée!) for dinner at Tora Fugu, とらふぐ亭.

Now, X and I met our friend, Dan, and his girlfriend, Haruna, in Tamachi for dinner. X's only other goal for this trip was to try fugu, or pufferfish, and Aka-san really came through for us by finding a restaurant that specialized in serving this fish.

Aren't they just awesome?!

I have to commend Haruna for her patience with me that night. I pretty much had no information regarding the restaurant we were going to, since I couldn't print out the e-mail Aka-san sent me regarding the reservation and I couldn't print out the map on their website. I think I only had the name of the place, and I'm not even sure I copied that down correctly. So poor Haruna had to be the one to go to the koban, or police station, to get proper directions to the restaurant. I am sad to say I think Haruna was a least slightly perturbed at me, seeing as I was essentially useless and I was kind of the one that arranged everything. Regardless, we made it fine and were seated right away. All of us looked over the menu and Haruna and Dan suggested a meal that prepared the fugu in different ways.

First, for our drink we were given hot sake that contained fins of the fish.

Then, we were all treated to fugu sashimi. Next, we received an appetizer of fried fugu which for some reason I don't have any pictures of. Actually, I think you can see some of the fried fugu in the background of the next picture.

A basket of broth was brought out to the middle of the table and the burners were turned on. As we were finishing our appetizer, a tray of freshly cut fugu was brought out with various vegetables. When the broth was brought to the correct temperature, we were instructed to cook the fish and vegetables similar to the way one would do so at shabu-shabu or Chinese hot pot.

Are we jigglin'?

X kissing fugu lips

Once most of the meal had been cooked, the staff brought in rice that we then dropped into the seasoned broth.

The entire meal was exquisite and we left full and happy. I cannot speak highly enough about the experience, and more than that I cannot speak highly enough regarding the company I had during dinner. Seeing Dan and Haruna again was a real treat and I can only hope they enjoyed the night as much as X and I did. Oh, there's some short video from dinner as well which you can see here.

Can there be any other ending picture?