Eating out is always an adventure

On a lighter note, Nagasaki is a fun city to hang around in. The city is bustling with trams, cars, motorbikes and people. There’s a huge mall and train station, and even a movie theater. It’s busy but still manageable which makes it a perfect mix. We walked by the Dutch town which is a reconstructed villa showing how trading was done in the 1500s. You have to pay to enter so we decided to just walk by it and head to Chinatown.



Compared to NYC’s Chinatown, this one is quite small but much cleaner and nicer smelling. There were still old men playing chess in the park but there are also legal fireworks for sale. We walked into a shop and I couldn’t resist getting the one where a monkey flies out in a parachute. Sure it cost about $10 but it is so going to be worth it! You get to keep the monkey afterwards so I see it as an investment.



After our stroll, we decided to get some dinner. Not knowing any restaurants in the area, we walked into the first one we saw. The menu looked good from what we could read so we stepped in. We saw Shabu-Shabu (a boiling pot of vegetables, meats, fish, etc) on the menu and thought we should try it. The owner/chef came to get our order and asked if we’d like sashimi (obviously their specialty) but we decided to be obnoxious foreigners and ask for Shabu-Shabu. He replied with extreme politeness that it is normally a winter dish but that it is delicious if we’d like it and then proceeded to make it. We felt like total wankers (as Alex would put it) but what was done was done.

We heard all this flipping and chopping noise and realized one of the fish in the tank was gone. Moments later we had sashimi and a fish head staring at us. The poor fish was delicious (talk about fresh!) and the chef gave us the option of eating it sashimi style or Shabu-Shabu style (dipping it in the boiling pot of water and eating it hot). We felt so bad about our faux pas that we felt obligated to eat every part of that fish. We did our best and it every bit was tasty. He also served us some fresh vegetables and tofu and then made a special rice dish with the leftover broth. It was amazing.


We kept joking that this meal would’ve been perfect with some eggnog, a roaring fire, and Christmas presents in the winter. We felt like such idiots! We overheard the waitress telling another table that the crazy foreigners had ordered Shabu-Shabu in the summer and then we heard a roaring “Ehhhh??” (the Japanese equivalent of What?? Or Wow!). Too funny! But all ended well and the chef and his wife thanked us for our visit. They gave us drink tickets for the next visit and were even kind enough to allow a picture.



On the walk back to the hotel, we were treated to some surprise fireworks and walked by Meganebashi. Literally translated, the name means “glasses bridge” and you can hopefully see why.