Dining and Degas

We love living near Yokohama.  It's nice to live near but not in two of the biggest cities in Japan.  There are so many things to do in the city.  The last time we were in Yokohama we noticed that there was an Edgar Degas Exhibit being shown in the Yokohama Museum of Art through the end of December.  Sometimes I fall short of being the thoughtful and creative one when it comes to planning dates.  Mike is always so thoughtful in how he goes about planning or buying things for me. It makes me realize that he is defintiely listening to me more than I give him credit for.  He really is quite amazing.  That being said, I have tried to be a little more thoughtful in how I go about things while living here in Japan.  He mentioned that he loved Degas and that was all I needed to hear.  I knew that would be the perfect date.  I procrastinated getting a sitter FOREVER and finally came up with the idea to do it after Christmas.  The idea was to eat lunch at the Sky Restaurant at the top of one of tall towers in Queens Square, go see the exhibit, and then go shopping.  Well, we quickly changed plans when we both realized we couldn't wait to eat lunch so we snacked along the way and went to see the exhibit first.  It was an amazing exhibit.  I just kept thinking how much the girls would have loved to see all the paintings of the ballerinas.  After getting our fill of paintings (let's face it, there is only so much I can handle walking around an art exhibit) we we went shopping next door at Queens Square (more up my alley).  We had a few things to return first and then we looked around.  Everything in Japan is way more expensive than shopping online or in the US, however, there is a different selection here and it is always fun to see the clothes in person. Returning anything here in Japan has proved to be such a hassle.  They credit you the entire amount of your purchase followed by re-charing you for everything minus the item returned.  It is so backwards.  I found a cute sweater at Banana Republic and we found Emma a brown sweater at LL Bean.  We couldn't find anything for Mike which is why we were there in the first place.  Bummer.

Instead of eating at the Sky restaurant like we had initally planned, Mike came up with the great idea (surprise, surprise) to go to Chinatown and eat at a Brazilian restaurant called Travesso Grill.  Brilliant!  We hopped on the subway and headed a couple of stops to Chinatown.  It was fun walking up and down Chinatown looking in all the shops and at all the food.  It was interesting to note that every restaurant sold sharkfin soup and it was pretty expensive.  I think the smallest portion was $50-60 and the biggest portion was almost $200. Yikes!  We finally made it to Travesso Grill but were dissapointed to see that it was not open yet.  We definitely had some time to kill but it was so cold outside so we headed to Starbucks, bought some hot chocolate, and sit in the warmth just talking.  It was perfect.  I could have stayed there all night.  Starbucks has such a cozy feel.  We finally did make it to the restaruant and completely gorged ourselves with lost of yummy meat.  Mike was in heaven reliving some of the things he ate on his mission.  He even ate things he didn't like just to remember what it was like.  There was so much meat to eat and I ended up getting full rather quickly.  It must have been that hot chocolate I drank.  I always look forward to the times where we can sit and talk about anything without little ears hearing what we are saying.  Being out with Mike made me realize how important it is to have consistent dates.  They don't have to be fancy or expensive.  They just have to be the two of us.  I can't wait for our next fun date together!