date night!

For the first time officially (really the 3rd --- we went to the movies when Cora was about 10 days old when my folks were here and we went out to Indian dinner alone when Greg's folks were here).....

Greg and I had PROPER date night! Complete with dinner reservations and a driver :) We enjoyed the "Steak Salon" for dinner --- with Kobe beef and lobster in addition to 5 more courses, yum. (We had dinner there when Cora was baptised, by her antsiness made Greg and Duke not able to truly enjoy the food/atmosphere).

Next we went to Sasebo's best "karaoke box" called Shidax. This place is a trip. It's a 6 story building of private karaoke rooms, with each room stocked with every song one would want to sing, a flat screen TV, leather couches, disinfected microphones (for some reason that's a big deal here.....) and a butler available every time the phone is picked up for drink delivery..... It's an "all-you-can-drink-for-2 hours" kinda deal. This was the first time I was there not pregnant and Greg's first time at Karaoke at all in Japan. We had so much fun. Pretty sure the walls are soundproof as the rooms are close together and we couldn't hear anyone singing....we hope the same for them!! Funny, we sang a few songs we'd never done before --- "teach your children well" and "Teenagers" --- I guess Cora was on our mind even if not in our sight!

Finally, we stumbled upon a scotch and cigar bar Greg had visited with a friend. It was a riot of a place -- again, very compact, Japanese style, I suppose...... The whole bar was a maximum of 3 ft wide and probably 25 feet long. The wall was covered in scotch from around the world. They had cuban cigars for sale. We were a bit irked by the 600 yen per person sitting fee, but were glad for the snacks they served us ---- a high end bar mix and a jar of hershey's kisses! ooh and the draft Guinness was a nice end to the night!

All-in-all our night was great! Oh, by the way, Cora was under the excellent care of our friend Janet and really her 14 year old son Reid (who was our surrogate teenager a few months back)....we're sure going to miss them when they PCS in a couple of months!

ADDENDUM: Greg's been seeing a Japanese doctor here who does acupuncture and was a little perplexed at Greg's "low energy" (don't ask - neither of us understand) at an appointment the day after out date. When Greg explained he had been to Karaoke the night before, the doctor was VERY impressed and was told that "Karaoke is VERY good for your health" -- I guess we'll have to kick it up a notch and do it more often! On a side note, the same doctor is not a fan of Greg's insatiable thirst for ice cream and explained to him (in an accent) that "ice cream bad" (and after Greg's reaction) "beer good, but ice cream bad." I think Greg is intending to continue to pick and choose what words of wisdom he decides to follow.