Hunting through Paris! ... Day 8 (bikes and real Japanese food)

On the Friday before Hunter's flight back home, I had class from 12:30-2:30pm, so Hunter went back to visit the Jardin de Luxembourg to wait for me. We still had the bikes we rented the day before, and it was nice riding them to class and around Paris some more.

Also that day, my friend Gaku, who is from Japan, invited a group of us out to an authentic Japanese restaurant for dinner that night. So when Hunter and I met up at the Jardin, we quickly got a bite to eat for lunch and then made our way towards where we would be meeting Gaku, which was near the opera area.

On the way, we saw an interesting demonstration going on by the Louvre:
It was a huge circle of people standing silently, and some had signs on their backs explaining what they were protesting. I found out that it was a "circle of silence" for the unfair treatment of immigrants in France.

Here's my way of joining the circle!

And here's Hunter! And if you're wondering about that fabulous scarf he's wearing, it's mine, but I let him borrow it because it was cold.



Now about the Japanese restaurant. I've always been skeptical that the Japanese food we have in the US is really what they eat in Japan, and I was totally right! For example, I asked Gaku if they had hibachi grills where he's from (you know, where the chefs cook your food at the table?), and he had absolutely no idea what I was talking about. I found out that Japanese food is not about sushi so much either. While I was there, I tried a sort of pancake dish that had pork and fish shavings in it, and it was so so delicious! Hunter tried a pork rice dish. It's ironic considering the fact that I used to work in a "Japanese restaurant" back home, because the only thing I recognized at the restaurant in Paris was the miso soup. Oh well. Parisians think Japanese food is mostly sushi too, so we Americans aren't the only ignorant ones.



After dinner, Hunter and I decided to give Monica a ride back to her place. Technically, the bikes we rented weren't meant for more than one person, so we had to try a few positions before finding a comfortable fit, ha ha...
At first, we were going to have Monica ride my bike, and I would ride with Hunter, but when Monica realized that her bike-riding skills were rusty, we switched so that she rode with Hunter (she almost ran into a few people and then a restaurant. I'm serious.). After we figured that out, it wasn't so bad. Actually, it was really fun. But since the bars weren't so comfortable to sit on in the back, Monica and I switched off every now and then, and we eventually made it to Monica's place.
(The position in the picture above didn't quite work either.)





And later that night, Hunter and I rode the bikes back to my place!

Picture by the river on the way!

Bisous XOXO