Sailing The Seas of Melancholy With Klute In Sendai

Note - this post is most thoroughly enjoyed walking down the street in a busy city with Fool's Love & Saviour playing while slightly inebriated. You can read this some other day.

Rain, Klute & Cocos, I'm sailing the seas the of melancholy. I think it has to be in Sendai though because I would be ok in Tokyo, neon lights, blissfully masked people, idols, but not Sendai. Doesn't help that I am out by the port and the only fucking things out here are home centers, outlets, truckers and shitty chain restaurants, enter Cocos.

Finishing up the gem show today I was stoked ti find this restaurant called California Dining Room カリフォルニア食堂. Even better, they had Costa Mesa, my hometown, plastered across the entry.

I hurried to my hotel after the show, checked their hours, Corona strikes at 8pm ya know!, and yes, according to Google maps they were open until 7pm. So grabbed a king size beer at 7-11, put Klute's "Stuck On You" on and bounced like a madman over to California Dining Room.

15 minutes later and needing to wiz, I arrived..... closed. wtf, wtf, WTF!

It was only 6:30! I needed a "Savior" and Cocos!

I had passed a Coco's on the way here so I rushed back to get a bite to eat and use the lavatory.

Now, for those of you who have traveled abroad, have you ever felt like you were in a slightly alternate universe, like where things were kinda the same, but different? Well that's Japan!

Coco's is an old American chain family restaurant. My folks used to take us when we were kids. Looking to score some nostalgic points I eagerly opened the menu, holy shit, nachos with guacamole, cheese and beans! That was ordered along with some sirloin steak and a large beer! Sorry sir, no alcohol. For fuck's sake it wasn't even 7pm yet! Corona is still over an hour away! Those are the rules in NeoCoronaJapan, no alcohol at the big chains.

Drink bar it was then, with chardonnay flavored grape drink! Non-alcohol adult flavored beverages are all the rage in Japan right now.

Actually they both were pretty good. I totally recognized the frozen guacamole from Costco.

The steak was ok until I got to the chewy, tendon parts. I politely spit those out into a rolled up napkin as my neighbors looked on in gaijin horror.

Frozen dinner enjoyed, I exited alternate universe Cocos drunk on grape juice non-alcohol chardonnay, found "Fool's Love" and happily wander down the deserted streets of Sendai to enjoy the Tokyo Interior and some fireworks.

One good thing to come out of today was this beautiful rainbow garnet I bought from Joji, the dude who discovered them in Japan. He had it faceted and it screams with fire!

I've kinda trashed Sendai, it's not so bad, I just happen to be 20 minutes from downtown at the port. The tsunami did some serious damage out here so it's no wonder people avoid it like the plague.

It's getting late, the "Angel Makers" are calling and Corona is rampaging the streets so I think I'll call it a night. Oyasumi Sendai.