Tokyo, take 2

I know there is no "take 1" on here, because I have been delinquent, due to having an infant (now toddler) and opening a brewery. I would say that I haven't travelled much, which is true except for the trip we took to Tokyo last March (2012).

Now I am back to visit Ian before he moves back to the US this spring. I am here for one short week, which is the longest that I'm wiling to leave the brewery in other people's hands. (In fairness, I am pretty pleased that Fat Bottom is stable enough that I can walk away for a week and be confident that nothing will collapse.)

It is Sunday now, and we are getting ready to go to the Yokohama Winter Beer Bash...more on that later. I left Nashville early Wednesday morning and got to Ian's place in Tokyo just before dinner Thursday. The weather here has been fantastic for January...clear and temperatures in the 40s, maybe touching 50 at midday. I came here on a beer and noodle mission, and can proudly say that I ate nothing but ramen and onigiri until dinner last night, which was tonkatsu (fried pork cutlet).

On the beer front we have done well. At dinner we generally drink local macro brews (all that is available in most restaurants), but we went to the Baird's Brewery taproom in Meguro on Friday night to enjoy some local craft beer and the poetry of Robert Burns, since it was his birthday, read by a very drunk and friendly Scottish-Japanese guy.