What would a Ninja do?

After weeks of self-inflicted cabin fever, my exam was over and we were free to explore!

Saturday kicked off with a 1hr massage (I deserved it! :P)… again, there was utter bemusement on the masseuse’s face when she told me how tight my muscles were… *sigh*

After a tasty lunch at Wolfgang Puck’s café in Bay Quarter, we hit the train to Akihabara to pick up some MP3 players… several hours later and with a  few swipes of the credit card we emerged victorious! We then crossed into the centre of Tokyo to Asakasa to restaurant called… "Ninja"… guess who picked it? :)

 We were dubious when we first walked in and the hostess clapped her hands for a Ninja to appear… that was just the start of it! We were escorted by lantern through a maze of small ceilings (Marcus wouldn’t stand a chance!), staircases and a big trap door… to our table. It was in a small area with 3 other tables. Our Ninja waiter pulled out a magic menu… and we realised all the set menus had an abundance of seafood… not friendly for my Ninja. Fortunately there was a very long ala carte menu too. We resisted the “Beauty Cocktails” and opted for a bottle of French red. Our menu choices are below, as is our ninja magic show – it was amazing… or maybe there was something in the wine? Apologies for my commentary in the background – I don’t really sound like that, do I? See if you can pick up on the fake pen joke he throws in there… not cool! They also did fire tricks and the best food trick we saw was a grapefruit with a knife through it, when they removed the knife the fruit started smoking (solution: the blade must of held a piece of dry ice, when pulled out, it dropped into the liquid below)...very cool!

Forbidden Fruit

Stewed Apple with marinated duck inside!

 Tristan's entree - duck with wild rice

My main - roast lobster

Tender lamb

Dessert choices - what would you have chosen?

Ninja chose the "Merchant and Corrupt Official" - chocolate layered cake under the gold

I went the Bonze - pumpkin ice-cream and chocolate cake - yummo

The next day we hit Tokyo again, to exchange an MP3 (damn you Sony and your non-international language supported toys!), and to finally hit a baseball batting cage! It was a little walk from Shinjuku station. Our batting techniques are below… clearly one of us was a little leaguer… and the other did ballet :P My pitches were at 80km/hr and Ninja opted for 90km/hr… they came every 4 seconds, so we had 30 balls x 2 rounds each … and we have been in a world of pain every since!

We headed home via Costco. I found a 16 year old bottle of port for $60, so I was rather chuffed… until we got to the check out and the lady gave us the “no deal” sign to Mastercard (our AMEX hasn’t been replaced yet)… so with our tails between our legs we scrounged together to pay the huge bill but had to return the port – I was so ashamed… and bitter about losing it! Damn you Costco!

We returned home to Skype the newest member of the Bardill clan – Elijah – another huge cutie born last week (good job Chels) – he’s super cute and I could tell he was less impressed than I am at Uncle Frog’s (aka Kept Ninja) facial hair! This “beards at births” tradition is not all its cracked up to be!

Until next week…

Xoxo

Karate Kate