Jazzin' it up Japan Style

So, we are finally moving along with our blog - we are now into August - getting closer to real time.

Back in August we got invited to attend a Jazz performance at a local Iwakuni piano bar. We went along with our good friends Kim & Keith, as one of their co-workers' wives was featured as the lead vocal. It turns out that she studied voice in the States and now performs once a year with a famous Japanese drummer when he visits Japan. The rest of the ensemble was made up by a bass player and pianist. We were told that they only practiced for about 30 minutes before the show, so it was incredible the way they were able to ad lib and go with the flow all together. All but one of the songs were sung in English, but the one Japanese song was actually our favorite - overall a very fun night expanding our cultural horizons.

Getting ready for the night!

We had dinner at our favorite restaurant, Butajiro, before the show. It's a tapas style restaurant where everything is 290 yen. They don't really speak any English at the restaurant and the menu is all Japanese with a couple of pictures. So we like to order from the pictures and then randomly pick other things off the menu. Normally we can tell if we're getting pasta, fish, beef, or chicken, but beyond that, sometimes we don't have a clue what we're ordering! It adds to the awesomeness of the experience. They restaurant always starts us off with their special of the day and since there were 4 of us, we got 4 different specials. This time it was potato salad, brie cheese, prosciutto, and octopus salad.

We ordered 3 servings of risotto. Cheese on Japanese menus is rare, which is why the Brie in the appetizer was unusual and the risotto is so good! They actually stir the hot rice in a big clock of cheese tableside to pick up extra cheese flavor before they serve it to you.

Sardines.

I was the first brave one to eat the whole sardine.

I think this was pork belly. Really fatty, but REALLY good. Kirk would tell you it was worth the calories.

Baked chicken.

After dinner we headed over to the piano bar, which was on the 4th floor of this tiny, narrow building in downtown Iwakuni. We were some of the last folks to get there, but our tickets were numbered because there was assigned seating. Kim and Keith's co-worker, Daigo, really hooked us up ticket-wise because we had seats at one of the front row tables. The place was really crowded as there were probably around 100 people at this show in the tiny upstairs venue.

 We got an appetizer plate and one beer a piece as part of our ticket price. But, we were pretty full from dinner so we made our way through this food slowly - meatballs, chicken bits, potato salad, edamame, and sweet egg omelet.

This is the view from our seats - we got a good view of the pianist and the famous drummer! Kirk really liked sitting so close to the pianist as she was able to watch him the whole time.

Kim and Keith, why'd you have to go back to the States?!

Risa, the singer, was FANTASTIC. Kirk described her as sounding "sultry and perfectly Jazzy". We were really impressed.

Thanks to Daigo and Risa for inviting us - we had a great time!