Tasty Thursday, back for one day...

So, my tasty Thursday lunch buddy is moving back to the US and I am so so sad she is leaving. I will miss her terribly. However, today we enjoyed one last Tasty Thursday before she ventures back to "home." In reality, I think we only did like 3 or 4 Tasty Thursdays due to the earthquake and both of us leaving Japan, but we had very good intentions. For today, our Japanese teacher treated us to a fabulous Japanese lunch in Ginza. We had our own private booth for the first and second course behind closed doors, and then moved to an open room for the dessert buffet, of which we had exactly 45 minutes to eat as many cute little desserts that we could stuff in our mouths. The presentation of the food was beautiful, and the company was even better. Our first course consisted of several small dishes with items like tofu, okra, a radish salad, sweet egg, meat balls, and a spinach salad. My friend and teacher enjoyed the sushi plate for their main course, and I sampled a few myself. I had a miso flavored fish with rice for my main course. For dessert, we sampled a little bit of everything. Kei came along for the luncheon while Miyako stayed with Nena. I am glad I left Miyako at home - she would have been all over our little private booth and probably would have turned over the dessert table in efforts to try one. Kei was super - he just laid in the booth and looked around and slept both on the bus ride to Ginza and back. Even though I had one child with me, it was a nice little respite for me with some good adult conversation before my friend leaves.