Tuesday night was my going-away party, held at Keita Kaizen, a very nice Japanese restraunt that specializes in sushi. (But it's not a pure sushi joint.) The layout was cleverly designed to suit both Western and Japanese dining styles. The tables were fixed in place, and low to the ground, with zabuton cushions to kneel or sit crosslegged, in the Japanese style. But the space underneath the table was a two-foot deep trench, so you could sit on the cushions with your legs down under the table, sitting like you were on a backless bench.

I tried to prove I was hardcore by sitting seiza the whole meal, but I gave up after about a half hour. I've gotten soft.

Everyone from the shop was there, as was my OIC, and Gunny and Cpl McG brought their families. McG's wife detests sushi, so she had dumplings, while the two toddlers had fried rice. The rest of us just ordered sushi platters and shared alike. I consumed the following sushis: tuna, omelette, yellowtail, salmon, fried pork, California, freshwater eel, saltwater eel, spicy tuna, rainbow, and a fish that none of us could identify. Most were quite delicious. I also decided that as it was my party, I'd go all out; plus I was sitting next to the OIC, who is also a fan of exotic foods, so the two of us ordered a bunch of sashimi, which is slices of raw fish (and by modern extension, raw meat.) (Sushi, for those who don't know, actually refers to the rice with vinegar, which then has a variety of ingredients added. While raw fish is the American expectation of sushi, there are lots of other kinds.)

So anyway, I also had straight-up slabs of raw tuna, raw salmon, raw yellowtail, and raw horse. Yes, horse. It was good. Gunny was horrified, and not much happier when I said "Hey, they called him 'Sea Biscuit' for a reason, right?"

Near the end they busted out my plaque, which was a lovely shadowbox. All present wrote me notes on the back in Sharpie. It was very kind. Orion beer and the local awamori were consumed. [Passive voice to avoid responsibility, eh? -ed.]

Then we went home, and the next morning at work we learned to our mutual amusment that four of us had some, shall I say, "digestive upset" later that night. Apparently one of those dishes was bad, but as we were all sharing all over the place, heaven knows what the culprit was. And for that matter, it could have been one of us contaminating the food. The OIC and I were doing the proper Japanese thing when taking food from a communal plate, which is to use the "back end" of the chopsticks. Everyone else was having enough trouble with the pointy end of the chopsticks, that they didn't even try. So basically it was a perfect recepie for cross-contamination.

It was a wonderful time anyway. Marines are all brothers and sisters, but of course some siblings you like more than others. Every one of the Marines at the party was a person I've been glad to serve with, so I was happy to celebrate with them.

Posted by: Boviate at 04:36 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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