I think it is funny that whenever we meet people, they call me and Taro newlyweds. I mean, we are newlyweds, but the term is just so strange. I have known Taro for a while now – we lived together in three different apartments, bought a house together, and share ownership of Peanut…all before getting married! So newlyweds? Yes. New to each other? Far from it. A series of questions will then follow after the newlyweds statement: When did you get married? Is it different being married? And of course, then there are comments like, “It’s your first [fill in the blank] as a married couple!” So I guess this was our first Valentine’s Day as a married couple, but really I don’t see anything different about it. It is just an excuse to get each other something and then enjoy the night. We don’t need a day to celebrate love, but it is nice to know that there is someone special to celebrate the day with.
Our Valentine’s Day was pretty low key; I booked a massage for Taro at The Massage Place – he desperately needed one to get the knots out of his back from work – for an hour and a half and when he was done, we had lunch at home – sandwiches, salad (leftover from Mozza), and clam chowder from Bristol Farm (My fave!). What did we do afterward? Nap. Massages are exhausting and Taro slept for three hours! I only napped for an hour and did a mixture of reading and watching the Olympics when I woke up.
So at 6:30 p.m., we headed off to the Metro Gold Line since it now goes all the way to Little Tokyo. Once we got there, I had to pick up imagawayaki from Mitsuri Cafe; these things are amazing, especially when they are freshly made. I always buy some and take them home because they are one of my favorite things. Then we walked over to KaGaYa, a shabu shabu restaurant, which we went to a few years ago and really enjoyed. Shin-Sen-Gumi does not compare when it comes down to shabu shabu and why we haven’t returned earlier to KaGaYa, I’m not sure, especially since I remember how delicious their meat was and how their banana dessert was something to be remembered. So we were excited to return and it did not fail our expectations. I ordered the special – live king crab – and Taro ordered beef (USDA prime rib) with a side of premium wagyu beef. Live king crab is amazing; to order the regular Alaskan king crab does not even compare. We dipped it just long enough to have it cook and savored each bite; the portions were actually generous considering it also came with clams and oysters. The beef was also delicious, but when it came to the wagyu beef, it was like butter. You have to just count to three when you swirl it in the broth and then, it just melts in your mouth. Taro and I left KaGaYa stuffed and we seriously cannot wait to go back.
After dinner, we headed over to Casey’s Irish Pub to watch Joe Romero, Taro’s friend from high school, do an anti-Valentine’s Day stand-up. I have only been to the Laugh Factory once, but this was nice and intimate, and also a treat because it was Taro’s personal friend. There were a lot of jokes made about dating and overall, it was a night filled with laughs, drinks, and more laughs.
It was a good Valentine’s Day – nothing outrageous, just a nice day. So Happy Valentine’s Day again, Taro, and here is to many, many more.
Dark because of the pub (I didn’t want to use the flash to blind him), but here is a picture of Joe Romero making the audience laugh:
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