Japan: Hiroshima 11 - Crab Restaurant & Nagarakawa

Tonight Lance took me to the mother of all Crab restaurants. One look at the entrance of the restaurant says it all:

It was in an area called Nagarakawa. There's a street full of restaurants, karaoke, and bars. And it's only a 10 minute walk from our apt.

Side note: Nagarakawa is hopping with nightlife. The streets are lined with well dressed women and men that look like there are going to prom (long dresses, silver stilettos, furs and animal prints). Lance thinks they are hookers with their pimps. I'll need to verify with my Japanese sensei tomorrow.

The meals here in Japan not only in small portions, but they come in sets (like a McDonald's value meal). These sets are tiny appetizer sized portions of food that are already put together from appetizer to dessert. It's like a 10 course meal that keeps coming out with no end. Thankfully there is no tipping here, otherwise the servers would never be able to turn tables.

We ordered a couple of a la cart items including crab dumplings and crab cakes. The set included boiled and roasted King crab, crab soup, crap nabu, boiled Snow crab, crab rice...I sound like Bubba. We did a learn a valuable lesson - found out we hate crab sashimi. It is slimy and I didn't even know that raw crab could be eaten til now. Our dumpling steamer had little fire under it. So when the waitress wasn't looking, we slipped all the raw meat into it and cooked it ourselves.

Side note: I verfied w/sensei and she said the women and men dressed up in Nagarakawa are called "bar hostesses." They are trying to get patrons into their bars where you would pay money to sit down, pay for expensive drinks and they persuade you to keep buying things. The women keep you company and the bars are frequented by business men after work. The men on the streets w/the hostesses are their guards....kinda like a strip club without the strippers.