Shabu-shabu

Just as we (used to) love our fondue, Japanese love to sit around a hot bubbling pot and cook their own savory tidbits.  Shabu-shabu starts with a pot of broth bubbling over a burner; ours came to the table full of goodies.  You can identify tofu, black beans, enoki mushrooms and spinach but I don't remember what the bread-like chunks were.  Maybe bread?

You dunk all the food below the surface and bring it out wet and savory.  Then comes your plate of paper-thin sliced pork -- two different kinds, you will notice, each with a different pattern of marbled fat.  You put a slice into the pot for a minute or two, then fish it out and chow down.

Finally after you've eaten and eaten and eaten, the waitress brings a bowl of noodles to put in the (sort of) empty pot of  broth.  We were so stuffed that we barely touched them.  I hope they put the leftovers out for some homeless people, because a whole lot of homeless people could have had a fine dinner.

The food was great but the excess was off-putting.  What you see in the pot was for four people (I think it could have served six or seven easily) and the plate of pork was for two.

And I didn't mention the three courses that came before the pot -- exquisite plates of mystery food.

If I could have done it over again, I'd have skipped the appetizers and gathered six people, not four, around our pot.  And if I could have done it over again, I'd like to gather around that hot pot in January, not July.

But that's quibbling; the food was both delicious and beautiful.  I didn't get the feeling that it was just a tourist meal, although I would recommend it to any tourist.