so i mostly just hung out in the room and took hot spring baths today. but i did have the most extravagant dinner of my life at one of the hotel’s 3 fancy restaurants.

so this blog post is basically just gonna be about that dinner. but first, i was awoken to an earthquake. there were actually ten earthquakes in oita prefecture (where beppu is), and 9 of them were between 7:20 and 9:21.

the specific one that woke me up was the 3.7 magnitude one at 8:57. fun fact, check out where the center of the earthquake was (the red x) compared to where my hotel is:

thankfully, it was just a 3.7. so i didn’t like… die or whatever. but it scared the hell out of me. despite “only” being a 3.7, i was directly on top of the epicenter. that was by far the most powerful quake i’ve ever experienced. i know there was a big one in julian while i have been in japan. not sure how crazy that was at home.

anyways, dinner.

when i got to the hotel, i was asked if i wanted to have dinner at one of their restaurants. i was told “these 2 are japanese, and this one is french.”

i asked “what is the difference between these 2” and pointed at the two japanese restaurants on the map. the guy at the front desk said “this one is better.” and pointed at one of them. so i said “ok, i will have dinner at that one.”

that was the whole conversation. so i arrive at this restaurant, and find out its a private room, with an ocean view similar to the room i am staying in.

so i sit down, and they hand me this. apparently i have signed up for a predetermined 9 course meal.

i was not prepared for this, but i was excited to eat some 10/10 food.

it started with a plate that had a small serving of something i have never heard of, a piece of green bean tofu with a shrimp on top, and a bamboo shoot sushi roll.

these were all great. still no idea what the butterbur toji is. apparently toji refers not to a dish, but rather to a specific way of including egg in the cooking process. i dunno, but it tasted good.

next up, a sashimi plate.

you ever think about how shrimp are just bugs? like that is literally a bug. you can get pedantic and be like “no they are crustaceans” but like, look at that. thats a bug. crabs and lobsters are bugs too. i will die on this hill.

anyway this sashimi plate had 2 bites of shrimp, tuna, salmon, and a fish i don’t know. no one in the restaurant spoke japanese, so i didn’t get to ask questions.

next up, some tofu soup

this was much more flavorful than i expected, and one of the best parts of the meal.

next, simple “local grilled fish”:

this one bite of fish was hands down the best part of the meal, and i will never know what kind of fish it was.

next up, “wagyu beef with tomato sauce”:

despite being wagyu, this was honestly just ok. it tasted good, but i think the tomato sauce kinda drowned it.

next up, “fish marinated in vinegar”:

this was so good. powerful, given the vinegar. but so tasty.

next up, the main dish. “low temperature grilled oita wagyu”:

this was excellent. not quite as good as the kobe beef from a couple weeks back, but still extremely delicious.

next up, a bowl of rice, a bowl of miso soup, and some pickled vegetables:

this was of course all delicious. but at this point, i was dying. this was so much food. i could not hang. i had to google translate ask them to cancel dessert. this was like 2x more food than i can eat already, and i was not feeling dessert.

also, this whole meal was $45. lol.

i took a couple more photos on the walk i took right after the meal. but i pretty quickly went back for my 6th hot spring bath in 2 days.