Sneaky Italian

I went out to lunch with my Thursday class not too long ago. I always ask my students to pick where we'll eat because I know it will be someplace cool that I would never find out about on my own.

This time we went to Nashinokian. The restaurant is an old Japanese farm house that was trucked into the city a plopped down on top of a little hill in the middle of town.

>

>

>

>

Steps leading up to the restaurant

>

>

Nashinokian

>

Cool door knocker. You clunk on the fish with the mallet

>

To ward of evil spirits. Yes, it's a dried fish head on a stick

>

The inside was all very traditional with tatami floors, shoes off at the door, etc. We sit down and I'm working out how I'll politely get past the usual pickeled eggplant, squid ink soup or other very Japanese fare that I just haven't been able to wrap my taste buds around. I open the menu and..... it's Italian food!!! Pizza and pasta! So totally not what I was expecting, everyone got a good laugh out of my surprise. Everything was eaten with chopsticks though. It was a lot of fun.

>