Today was not much of an eating day.  Sampled some pastries with coffee in the morning and didn't really eat much else all day.

At night we went to Azabu-Juba for Soba.  Soba is noodles made on the premises from buckwheat flavor.  Served hot or cold, I have only ever eaten it cold and that is how we ordered it.  We also ordered the special "walnut dipping sauce."





Here is the setup.  Walnut dipping sauce in upper left corner.  To the right of that is the soba tsuyu sauce made of a dashi, sweet soy and mirin.  Below that is a bowl that you eat over that also has some wasabi you can add to the tsuya.  To the right are the buckwheat noodles on a bamboo tray called a zaru.  The process is to pick up some noodles with your chopsticks, dip them in one or both of the sauces, and then slurp them up.  Slurping noodles is not rude at all in Japan, it's the norm and it's the way to get the sauce (or broth in the case of ramen or udon) into your mouth.


Also served on the table is a hot kettle of the water that the soba noodles were cooked in.  When you finish your noodles (oops I didn't finish all of mine!) you pour the soba water into the whatever is left in your tsuya sauce and it becomes a little cup of soup to finish off your meal.

We also ordered a side of tempura mixed vegetables.  The pumpkin was great - sweet and full flavored.  I also really liked the tempura peppers - not too much heat but lots of taste.  Probably the favorite was the eggplant - well cooked, juicy, and very tasty.  Japanese vegetables are delicious.

Didn't really eat much else all day besides some pastries w coffee in the AM, so that's all I got for Day 6.