Magic in a fancy izakaya

Last week I was asked to do half an hour at a big party held in an izakaya not far from where I live. The people liked my magic and they asked me if I had an encore (so I did a trick I have not done in a long time that I happened to have in my bag) and they asked if they could take photos with me (which of course they could). Lots of fun, but the place was very hot so I was more or less melting when I was finished.

Chinese food with my colleagues

Fried rencon (lotus root) and pork, with what seemed like an unnecessary amount of spicy peppers.

This week's "let's eat way too much and drink for 4 hours while arguing strongly about things that do not really matter" thingy with my colleagues took place at a Chinese izakaya that one of my colleagues wanted to go to. The food was cheap and pretty good.

Steamed things

Dumplings

Shrimps in chili sauce

Mapo doufu

Tan-tan-men, very good.

Food, more food

My Greek friend has returned to Sapporo. He moved back to Greece in March, but is here again and will stay one year and a half (at least). That has mean quite a lot of welcome parties, with bizarre amounts of food, of course...

On Wednesday we wanted to go to one of our old favorite places again, but it turned out to have closed. The same chain has a few other places in the same general area, so we ended up at one of the others instead, which was still nice.

Swedes in Sapporo!

I asked the waitress if she had something on the menu that was very Japanese and that she thought was good. She suggested this mayonnaise and cheese covered squid.

On Sunday, at the festival in Otaru, I ran into a Swedish guy visiting Japan to visit his girlfriend's family. On Monday, I met a Swedish researcher who was here in Sapporo for a conference. I went to elementary school with his wife, so this time there was a connection. A few months ago she asked me: "My husband is going to Sapporo around the end of July, do you want to meet him?"

We went out and had okonomiyaki, a Japanese dish that I like and that you rarely see outside Japan. For people visiting Japan, sushi is of course the most famous Japanese dish to try, but since you can try that abroad too (and if you go to a good enough place it might even be like Japanese sushi :-) ), I like to show visitors Japanese food that you cannot find elsewhere.

Ramen salad, a Sapporo specialty

When we were walking back towards his hotel and my bicycle, we stopped at a red light and four other people caught up to us there. They also spoke Swedish! It turned out to be four Swedish ladies travelling around Japan. They had been in Tokyo, and had just visited some small islands in the far north of Japan. They were going to stay a few days in Sapporo and then go south, finishing their trip in Hiroshima. When we met them they were heading for an electronics store to buy a battery charger for one of their cameras.

The next evening, I met up with my former classmate's husband again, and we went to an izakaya, a Japanese type of bar that typically serves Japanese food. When Japanese people go out to drink, this is one of the most common types of places to go too, and they serve a variety of food popular with Japanese people. We also had my Swedish colleague with us, and a Spanish guy from the same conference our Swedish guest was attending.

A very very common way to prepare fish in Japan. This is a "hokke", which I did not know the Swedish name for. Probably there is no Swedish name for it? Hokke is very common (as food) in Hokkaido.

I ordered a lot of different things to show a wide variety of  food, but ended up ordering a bit too much. It was nice, though.

Meeting this many Swedes in one week in Hokkaido is very rare. The only week I have met more Swedes was the week when the Sweden Hills area and Leksand (a small place in Sweden) celebrated the 20 year anniversary of their sister city agreement and 70 or so Swedes came here for midsummer. One time I randomly met a group of 15 Swedes in Hard Rock Cafe in Tokyo (where I was taken by an Australian woman showing foreigners around), but Tokyo is not in Hokkaido.

Japanese izakaya in Sweden!

Some of the things on the menu behind the sushi chef I can read (I know 南瓜 is pumpkin, for instance), but about half of them I cannot read...

Today I went with a friend and my parents to a Japanese izakaya in Stockholm. There are lots and lots of sushi restaurants in Stockholm, but not many places that serve other types of Japanese food. The restaurant Blue Light Yokohama is an izakaya and serves many types of Japanese food.

Some Japanese style decorations on the walls

They have sushi and sashimi, but they also have lots of salads, chicken wings, fried chicken, more or less raw meat, Japanese pickles, green tea ice cream, and many other Japanese dishes. I ordered a large selection of dishes, and all of it was good. The taste was what you could expect to find in Japan.

The staff all spoke Japanese to each other (the kitchen staff calling the waitresses etc.) and there were lots of Japanese on the walls and on their t-shirts. I read in a newspaper that the place was named Blue Light Yokohama since the owner, who is a Swedish man who lived in Tokyo, once thought he should learn to sing at least one song in Japanese when going to karaoke and then learned the song Blue light Yokohama. And then he named his restaurant after that song when he returned to Sweden and opened his own place here. I do not know if this is really true, but they did seem to have the lyrics of Blue light Yokohama on the wall.

The staff were very nice, and the food was good. If you like Japanese food or want to try something that is not raw fish without going to Japan, this place is good.

More Japanese decorations, on the toilet walls

The staff wear t-shirts that say "It like a Japanese person" in Swedish and Japanese.

My friend asked me what it said on the wall, and my guess is that these are the lyrics to the song "Blue light Yokohama". It sure reads like song lyrics.

There are some tatami mats with tables to sit at too.

My tea cup had the faces of all the Japanese prime ministers.

My mom likes both 梅酒 (plum wine) and 梅干 (dried plums)

The miso soup of the day

Sashimi selection

Shabu-shabu salad with sesame dressing

Buta no kakuni

Fried chicken (竜田揚げ)

Yakiniku

Shrimp dumplings

Sushi selection

Fairly raw beef

Chicken wings

Dinner with colleagues

Avocado wrapped in meat and the deep fried, a winter specialty.

Yesterday was the first time in months that I went out to dinner with my colleagues from the university. We had planned to go to a hamburger place that they have found, but it was full so we ended up in an izakaya we often go to.

Yesterday a Japanese plastic surgeon who studied computer science at Carnegie Mellon University in the States also joined us. It was the first time I met him, and he was quite interesting to talk to.

Dinner with my colleagues

Ever since one of my colleagues broke his thighbone, our almost weekly "have dinner and strange discussions" custom has been put on ice, but last week we finally got out again. We went to a cheap izakaya and had lots of good food, and some fun discussions.

Deep fried cheese, perhaps not the healthiest dish in the world but pretty good.

Cabbage and oil.

Barbecue sticks

Ramen salad, a Sapporo specialty. 

Egg, cheese, and fish eggs.

Mochi (gooey rice) wrapped in bacon and barbecued.

Some kind of gratin.