Today's word of the day is "beni-imo." Beni-imo is the Okinawa Purple Sweet Potato. It is often times made into a paste and used for filling delicious tarts. The boys are also big fans of beni-imo ice cream.
We had driven by a large beni-imo tart on 58 every time we had gone to the Aquarium and decided we'd make a stop to check out the place while Dick was here. Turns out it is a huge beni-imo food shop (with dozens of different vendors on the first floor) and upstairs is a beni-imo restaurant. On the first floor, behind the vendors, you can also watch beni-imo tarts and cookies being made on an assembly line. Sort of like a trip to Krispy Kreme, but with beni-imo goodies instead of donuts. The boys were thrilled to taste-test all sorts of beni-imo pastries from the different vendors...and we left with a few boxes for ourselves, as well.
That evening we headed back down to American Village to look for some dinner and souvenirs. We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Jusco (I know, I know - eating Chinese in Japan.) The food was very good; an interesting combination of Chinese and Japanese. I'm not a big fan of American-Chinese or the selection I tried while in China, but we enjoyed the Japanese-Chinese. Bottom line - we'd go back to that restaurant again.
---Arielle
