Last weekend I made a trip up to Niigata to participate in a gem and mineral show, http://www.mineralshow.net and meet up with some old HIVE bloggers, @boxcarblue and @rawselectmusic. It was my second time visiting the city, but my first time participating in the show. The post about my first day/night up is here: https://hive.blog/japan/@rt395/a-bitcoin-cowboy-in-niigata-japan-eating-mexican-at-acroiris
The second day was the actual first day of the show. Since it was my first time doing the event in this city I had no idea what to expect.
When the doors opened a good amount of people started flowing in. It was a great sign that despite COVID and the rain, people were still going out. The event even had a thermometer system set up at the door to check each attendee for fever before entering.
I waited patiently as window shoppers browsed but it took 1 hour after opening before I made my first sale. It was a small one, about $20, but even a small sale boosts your spirits. Only about $1280 to go to break even! Actually I had sold $600 to two dealers the day before so only $680 left to go.
As the day wound on the customers continued to trickle in, including more dealers who made the larger purchases. Time went by pretty fast as I kept tweaking our booth, adjusting positions of minerals and adding more stock, etc.
Towards the end of the day a customer who was interested in my jadeite earlier in the day returned with a bunch of Japanese jadeite, both as gifts for me and to show off his collection. True collectors act this way, so we instantly bonded.
What may just look like rocks to you are actually quite valuable. Jadeite is one of the most sought after stones and Japanese jadeite is top quality. He explained to me where each of the better pieces were from and that next time we could both make it out to their locality, Itoigawa, he would show me where to find it.
The closing music sounded at 5pm sharp and I closed up shop and shot back to my hotel to clean up. I met @boxcarblue and @rawselectmusic at an Tabehodai, Nomihodai, all you can eat and all you can drink yakiniku place on the other side of the station. You get 2 hours to eat and drink as much as you can for $40. These are quite popular in Japan. I am sure they saw these big foreigners come in and sweat a bit. We definitely got our moneys worth out of them.
We started off with some lamb and a round of beers. I've never had lamb and I was wondering if Box and Raw were taking the piss or if they really liked it? Being a good sport I tried it and knew there was a reason I don't eat lamb. It tasted like a meat, but a bit more greasy. No real distinctive flavor, just greasy meat.
Next up was the pork tongue! Now I was sure they were giving me a hard time, but by this time we already had 2 beers down the hatch so any was game. Cow tongue is quite popular here in Japan, pork tongue however isn't. Regardless I tried it. It tasted a bit like pork, but a weird kind, hard to pin down the flavor, but I was not a fan.
After that I said ok, we gotta have some kalbi(boneless short ribs). Those were delicious and pretty hard to screw up. Box ordered some sausages with cheese and those were amazing too. From there it was about 5 beers each, lots of cabbage and meat and politics! I told them regardless of their views, I wanted to steer clear, but they wanted to know how bad things were back in the states so the conversation proceeded. We were basically all on the same page so no blows were thrown.
Time flew by and before we knew it our 2 hours feast had expired. So we headed towards the train station and spotted another eatery to stop in and have one last drink before calling it a night.
I noticed one of my wife's favorite dishes on the menu, honey cheese on toasted baguettes. The guys had never had it and it was time for a dessert dish so I ordered that.
I'm not sure what kind of cheese it was, possibly camembert, but it's delicious with the honey spread out on the toast.
After a beer we said our goodbyes until next time. It was great seeing old friends in a different part of Japan to learn about what's happening in those parts as well as letting them know what's happening outside their area.
That's it for this post. Thanks for reading.
Next post, Day 3 & A Showa Themed Izakaya!
Wow! You were having a really good time! That restaurant looks very good!
Thanks @kaminchan. Ya, it was fun. It's always fun exploring new places in Japan. The izakaya was ok, fairly normal. The following night was a blast though. I'll try and get that post up tomorrow.
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LOL, dessert and a beer :-) - thanks for sharing your trip with us and some of the food.
The more carbs the better! I gained almost 15lbs in Japan. Wife is not happy, but my stomach was. Thanks for reading.
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