Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Bar

It dawned on me today that although I put these pictures on Facebook, I did not include them in the blog as I meant to.

In May, A.J. and I bought our first piece of Japanese "furniture"; a bar. We had no intention of buying anything this early on in our time here, and our original plan for the bar was to shop, and then have one custom made before we left. However, we found this one at a bazaar, fell in love with it, and decided to buy it.

When you open up the whole piece, this is what both sides look like.



As you can see, the inside is equipped for wine glasses, liquor bottles and wine bottles. It holds a lot! I even discovered that the bottle racks in the middle are slightly slanted in the back so the bottle tips up; preventing them from leaking. Very clever!


The top is in-laid with green marble and then lacquered over for protection.

Each panel represents a different season in Japan.





We love it!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Happy 25th!

I recently celebrated my 25th birthday! And although I was without my family, my friends here made it a wonderful day. I even had a few students from my summer class remember and bring me some cards! A.J. had given me my gifts before he left, but I got a phone call from him to wish me a happy day. Here are a few pics from dinner and one of the very nice birthday present my husband gave me...






Beautiful!! I also got to customize a pair of Nike sneakers!

Happy 25th to me!

Dine Like the Royals

Well, seeing as the road outside my house is currently completely torn up and I cannot leave, it seems like a good day to catch up on blogging!





On July 9th, 13 of us girls traveled up to the New Sanno Hotel in Tokyo. (The New Sanno is a DOD hotel located in the city. It has become a wonderful escape for us with and without the guys, as there are numerous restaurants, a NEX and lovely rooms available to stay in.) On this particular weekend, we went up for one of the dinners that the hotel was hosting; "Dine Like the Royals."



Dinner was based off of the menu that was served at the Royal Wedding of William and Kate. We had a 9 course dinner complete with 5 different wines. Every course that came out was delicious and we all enjoyed ourselves quite a bit!




Our table for dinner. (We were split between two tables.)


The appetizer was a Crab Timbale. Crab meat wrapped in smoke salmon.


The soup course was Chicken Consomme


Roasted Salmon Package for the Seafood Course


Pan Seared Breast of Duck for the Game Course


This was the best part of the dinner! Champagne Sorbet. Delicious!


Our Entree was a Medallion Duet. We had both beef and lamb with two different sauces.


The Summer Melon Salad


We finished with a dessert trio. Chocolate Biscuit Wedding Cake, Strawberry Ice Cream and English Trifle.

Overall, it was a wonderful evening filled with great food and even better friends.