Teppanyaki Lunch

The kids and I met my parents, my sister, Callie, and niece, Macy at Kobe for lunch today.  My mom had recently been to eat there with my brother for the "Teppanyaki Lunch Special" and just raved about it, so we all humored her and went along with her :) I was looking forward to the meal because I had eaten there once before and not only was the food really good, it was exciting to watch them prepare it for you.  Quite the show!!  I just wasn't sure if it was going to be Maya's cup of tea.

My mom and I had discussed that Maya was either going to love it or she was going to hate it.  She tends to be "shy" around new people and situations (usually for about, oh, 30 seconds) before warming up and putting on a brave smile.  She pulled that same stunt today by hiding behind chairs and my legs when she saw that we'd be sitting at a table with an unknown woman and her son.......WARNING: STRANGER DANGER!!!

So, once the 30 seconds passed and she decided to get over that, we ordered our meal and out came the chef.  Maya had to lean down and hide behind the table for a few minutes as he smiled at her.......she was being "shy" again.  Time passed and she decided that he was OK and she smiled as she watched him skillfully flinging around his cooking utensils.  She laughed hysterically as all of us attempted to catch pieces of flying broccoli in our mouths, but wanted us to know that she wasn't interested in attempting it herself. Then our cook decided it was time to really get the show started and he lit the whole grill on fire!!!  You could feel the blast of heat  We all watched in awe and Macy and Maya both burst into tears!  Jude was quietly mesmerized.

We managed to calm everybody down & eat our delicious meal. Maya & I shared the chicken, rice & veggies. She ate really well & seemed to enjoy herself once she got over her initial fear of stangers.....& huge flaming grills! One of the women that worked there came up to my mom and lifted Jude out of her arms to hold him, too, which was quite interesting.  My mom, knowing that I'm a freak about germs and strange people touching my kids, looked at me like "What do you want me to do??"  I gave her the go-ahead by just smiling.  He really seemed to like this small, Japanese woman a lot.  It's just always odd to me when people do that kind of thing because I would never DREAM of picking up a stranger's child!!  But maybe that's how they roll in Japan.  Who knows!?

The whole experience was a lot of fun & I hope my mom tries to convince me to go back again really soon!