Lady of Leisure

Kimono Hubby is rather frantic these days if I look like I am overtaxing myself. It really very sweet! It means I get the couch every night to prop up my feet. I get whatever food I want… and I never have to make it for fear that I may puke in it. I get excused when he comes home and asks what I have done for the day and the singular thing was to take a long walk. If I do schedule a full day for myself of work and errands, I end up having to calm his fears that I am overdoing it. It is truly touching how he has been taking extra special care of me.

The only problem with this extra care is that it has rubbed off to my friends. I’m not saying that I want to go out and climb Fuji-san tomorrow, but if I want to head to Tokyo and walk a few miles exploring, I should get a lot less worry than I do from friends and KH.

Then there are moments with friends like Thursday where I can truly appreciate that extra special care I am receiving. Two of my dearest friends here in Japan scheduled a lunch. The place… the Kannonzaki Keikyu Hotel’s formal restaurant Le Beau Rivage, which specializes in southern French dishes with a seasonal Japanese spin. Like many of the best restaurants in Japan, it is a seafood restaurant. I’m playing by the pregnancy rules and avoiding all fish except for that very tiny bite or two here and there. You know, mercury and all. My Japanese friend who planned the place, also showed me true love when she specially took care of my meal. She called ahead to ask the chef to create a non-seafood meal for me, to which he politely refused. My friend refused to leave it at that and find another place that would almost certainly never afford us an equally stunning view of the ocean and every city within a 60 mile radius. Instead, she got in her car and drove down to speak to the chef personally. Heaven only knows how she did it, but she convinced this chef to adjust his menu and make an entirely special meal… only for me… that day.

Instead of the planned seafood salad, the chef came up with seasonal, exotic vegetables that would compliment the flavors of the handmade vinaigrette dressing. A second course revealed a rich and creamy potato soup. Instead of the fish and squid third course, he came up with constructing local chicken drizzled in a rich and nutty flavored miso sauce on top of rice flavored in a paste made from more crushed seasonal vegetables. The fourth course and what is surely served in heaven was a perfect slice of the Japanese delicacy, kobe beef in a red wine sauce on top of the vegetable famous here in the Miura peninsula, a radish of exquisite taste. A last dish of desserts yielded fresh fruits in a raspberry glaze, mango custard, the fudgiest chocolate cake imaginable and homemade strawberry sherbert. I could barely walk when I got up from the table, and that was hours later as we had sat there lost in our usual, easy conversation.

It’s moments like these that again remind me of the kindness with which our Japanese friends and hosts show us. They continue to go above and beyond the expected… and continue to remind me of how to be a better person… and why I love every minute of my time here.