Fuji Rock Festival 2011

Took a hiatus.  Now updating life backwards in time starting with this weekend at Fuji Rock Festival 2011 in the Naeba ski resort where I stayed from early Saturday morning until Sunday morning – July 30th & 31st.

http://www.smash-uk.com/frf11/

Apparently there was heavy, record rain in the rest of Niigata Prefecture but Naeba though drizzly most of the time wasn’t too bad at least while I was there.  And it was neither too hot nor too cold which is perfect weather for an outdoor festival.

Until next year…

Akasaka Italian

My choice for the farewell get-together on Friday was an Italian joint on a very quiet and secluded street in Akasaka.

It’s fancier than I imagined!

As I had told my colleagues in advance, we were getting a very good deal for a full menu with bottomless house wines and yes, I believe the restaurant lived up to our expectations (for the price anyway).

We had to choose fish or meat for our main. My choice.

And at the end, presy time!

http://www.eatpia.com/restaurant/rusticanella-akasaka-italian

In a Sparkling Mood

So everything was packed up in our office by 3 pm on Friday, July 15 and celebration was called for.

Fast forward to 5:30 pm in Akasaka.  I had planned a farewell dinner in the evening for one of our colleagues who had left the dept about a month ago.  Before hitting the restaurant, some of us stopped by this “bubble bar” nearby.

Only seconds from Akasaka Station, Awagumi is on a quiet side street.

Sparkling wines starting @ ¥500 in the COD standing bar.

The sparkling wine glass is tiny but cute.

I started with a glass of cava but moved on to beer on tap. It's the heat!

http://bit.ly/pS7q10

Office Move

Our offices are moving for the first time in 12 years or so.  During this period, I’ve experienced being in two different departments (at the same time; dual positions) and before that I already worked for the company for soooooo many years, I naturally have uncontrollable amount of stuff.

So only a day left before the actual move, I finally got around to sorting things out and packing today at around 6 pm.

Stuff to discard.

And around 7:15 pm, we decided it was good time to open the bottle of sake that was given to one of us as a gift by a business associate.

Ichinokura from Miyagi, the most devastatingly affected prefecture in the 3/11 catastrophe.

And we thought he may be an illusion from the sake but apparently not. ^^

He was real.

So this guy was sitting in the next dept which from the look of it, is already ready to move…

Neighboring department, not mine.

Eating in a Sake Barrel

That seems to be the concept of this restaurant that has apparently brought real sake barrels and reconstructed them, with a few adjustments, into private dining rooms.  I stopped by it for lunch on Tuesday.

From outside of barrels.

On the inside.

The food!

http://www.irodori-aoyama.com/