Date Night Extravaganza: Kobe Beef and Illuminari

We had our usual Thursday night date night last night, but this week was something special. This was the first night of the 15th annual year end Kobe "Illuminari." Strictly speaking, this is a memorial to the January 17, 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake (also known as the Kobe earthquake).


We started out by going to the Illuminari. Fortunately, the night was a little bit chilly (a lot chilly by Japanese standards) with a threat of rain. This kept the crowds away, and overall, the night turned out to be pretty good weather.

The Illuminari is a huge light festival down the luxury shopping street of Kobe. There is celestial orcherstral music all around as you walk through this elaborate display of lights. At the end you come out in the city park where there is a an entire "cathedral" of lights surrounded by a series of food and festival type booths.



Pictures of the first part of the Illuminari street













Then came the cathedreal of lights.








Then came the festival type food booths.

After experiencing the Illuminari, we set off for dinner. Both Megan and I were dressed in jeans, but decided to duck into this impressive 3 story beef resteraunt we found. The hostess was sorting the patrons and trying to keep it low key. Floor 1 was for the hip typically fashinonably dressed Kansai region crowd. Floor 2 was for the middle aged, well-to do couples crowd. We got floor -- I never saw floor 3.

Here is the definative story about Kobe beef. "Kobe Beef" is best understood as an appellacion, but more like the Italian DOCG system than the French AOC system. To be Kobe Beef, the cattle must be raised in the Hyogo Prefecture. As an aside, Japan is divided into Prefectures, which are the politcal equivalent of states in the U.S. Due to Japan's size, however, a prefecture is about the size of a county in the U.S. Our prefecture is Hyogo and the capial city of Hyogo is Kobe.

Not all cattle raised in Hyogo can be called "Kobe Beef", though. Only a certain breed raised in Hyogo is properly called Kobe Beef. This is similar to such systems as the rules for "Chianti" wine -- location, plus specified varietals and techniques.

The catch is, not all Kobe Beef is created equal. even within the legitimate designations there are still grades. Again, think Bordeaux or Chianti. Most of what we've had so far as been what's designated as "A3" or "A4." This is still really good. I would say, it roughly equates to USDA choice and prime -- or mabey even higher. The top of the line, however, is A5. We finally had some last night.

Here is an award our resteraunt won. Either that or it's a graven image -- but strictly speaking it's a golden cow, not a golden calf. Also, Catholic's don't really go for the second commandment anyway. And our last defense is that we didn't actually "make" the image, we just looked at it -- which I think is OK.


These were the actual steaks we got. They put them raw for a few minutes on your table as sort of a runway presentation. For over 10,000 yen each, they need to go all out!

Here they are after being grilled. You also get steamed peppers and vegatables, rice, salt, pepper, and grilled garlic flakes on the plate.



Our place actually had instructions/suggestions for how to eat the meat on a card on each table. Like most things in Japan there is a proper procedure to follow.



As an aside, this resteraunt was actually Russian in name and motiff. Much of the non-oriental popoulation in East Asia is Russian. When we were in Saipan, even though it's American, everyone assumes that non-oriental "foreigners" are Russian and most are. They don't get too many Americans from the mainlaind expect for Navy personnel on leave.



Anyway, back to the beef:

Typically, a steak dinner like this will cost about $100 per person -- a bit more if you fill in with the full meal. The beef is so expensive and so rich that you really can't eat that much and need other items to fill up. It was really outstanding.

I have just learned of a "secret" place in Kobe which serves the A5 much cheaper (about $65 per steak) because the resteraunt is very pedestrian. Still not your everyday kind of meal, but definately worth it every now and then.

After dinner we stopped in a local shop. We will refrain from posting a picuture of the dog attached to a plug you can insert into your USB port. When you do, the dog humps the plug -- very tastful. The Christmas section was largely Christmas meets Halloween. There were multiple options in the "Santa's slutty helper" department. Again, we'll refrain from photo. The Advent Calendar above was the only thing we've seen that even is remotely religious. Of course, the cover is very Santa secular, and the text in German, so mabey nobody noticed.

Next post will be about Katie's "sick" day from school, mastering conveyor belt sushi, and our "Charlie Brown" Christmas Tree.