Belated Tokyo pics 3 - Collagen Nabe

Of course I can't go to Tokyo without seeing Mio at least once.  Since she was about to fly off to Singapore and miss our AnD get together (wait for that blog...),  she invited Chung and I to dinner the night before. Chung was also in town for TIFF.

This is Chung and Otomo-chan at the TIFF opening reception before dinner.  She was working hard all week!

Chung and I made it over to Akasaka and eventually found the restaurant that Mio had booked a table at.   It was Mio, Taiga Mai H and another friend of theirs... and...

Surprise guest appearance by Shoji Mai!  Last time I saw her was our Halloween 2008 night of debauchery! :-P

This place specializes in Collagen Nabe (hot pot).  yes, apparently the hot pot soup is made with collagen.  I guess its good for your skin???

It starts out in congealed blocks.

Then when they heat up the pot it melts into a liquid.

They brought out a bunch of courses of interestingly presented sides to go with the nabe as well.

The finale was a dessert course along with some strong Japanese style green tea:

"Why So Serious?"

Before we were stuffed we took a group picture, courtesy of Mio's camera:

Afterwards I decided I needed to burn some calories so I walked back to Roppongi from Asakasa... its actually faster because there's no direct subway but its not that far.  I preloaded the google map into my phone from a wifi spot and let GPS guide me through Tokyo's irregular blocks. :-P