Sukiyaki

Across the street from our rental, there was a small restaurant that offered a dish that Raymond loves.  It is called sukiyaki.  Because of the way eggs are grown in the U.S., this dish is not often offered in America, so trying it out was a treat.  Because we worked the kids hard today on their bikes--they biked between 15-16 miles--, we came here to eat dinner and try a new Japanese dish.
The meal was brought out to us like this.  There were two small dishes and an egg still in its shell.  One dish is for cracking the egg in it, beating it slightly with your chopsticks.  The other dish is for placing your food in after you dip it in the raw egg.  There was also a bowl of rice.  'Cause no Japanese meal is complete without rice.

Lastly, we had a small burner under a pot of broth containing thin strips of beef, cabbage, onion, tofu, and thick noodles.

 To eat this dish, you take something out of the hot pot and dip it in the raw egg.  The heat from the food is supposed to slightly cook the raw egg that is on the food before you put it in your mouth.

It didn't really cook the egg, at least not like us Americans could tell....so basically we were dipping our food in raw egg before eating it.  This is safe to do in Japan because they grow their food so differently here.  In fact, chicken can be eaten raw here--that would simply be unheard of in America!

Dipping our food in raw egg before popping it in our mouth was a little strange to us, and we were skeptical.  But, the rule with Japanese food is don't question, just eat.

If we were not thinking about what we were eating, it was really, really good!  The flavor was excellent!  We all really enjoyed it!  We ordered a different meal for Audra--no raw egg for her--, and she ate everything on her plate as well. 

We ended our food adventure by trying a Japanese pudding called purin.  It was a lot like flan.  Very light and not strong in flavor, it was a perfect ending to a fun and interesting meal.
This dish is usually very expensive in America--for one of our anniversaries years ago, Raymond and I ate at a restaurant that served something very similar.  We paid a lot of money for that meal.  Our entire family was able to try this experience--with dessert--for about $50 USD.  Awesome!