Sawasdee - Nagano City

It`s Seishun Juhachi Kippu season once again and Rad is on his seasonal Japanese castle quests. For this summer, he has Shinshu and Shikoku in his itinerary (this would mark his 60th or so castle). I was not supposed to go with him as I have really many things to do and deadlines to meet but when I looked at how much he would spend going alone compared to how much it would be if I tagged along, I packed my papers, my laptop and decided that I will just have to change my work environment. That was the best decision ever! I got rid of my household chores, slept in a nice bed for a change (we are using futon at home), and worked in a relatively cooler environment (Shizuoka is so deadly humid nowadays).

So, because I didn`t have my weekend posts, I decided to just share what we were up to for the up there in Nagano City. Well Rad did most of the travelling, burning himself in the process while I stayed at the hotel or at Starbucks burning holes in my brains but I can`t complain. He comes back tired and hungry so chances are we get to go to a nice diner for dinner. (By the way, you can read about the places he went to at his blog at Bushido Calling).

The first night, I packed us bento so we just ate in our room. On the second night however, Rad came back so exhausted and in need of a proper dinner so we decided to try the newly opened Asian restaurant called Sawasdee at the first floor of Smile Hotel (yup as in with the smiley).

It was quite dark inside, perhaps that`s the mood they wanted to give as we were led to our seats. They seated us to very nice chairs made of vines and each shaped like a cave. It was actually very comfortable that 2 slim persons can sit comfortably. Then they put a candle in our table and I had to ask for another one because, there is no way I would be able to see my food with just one candle and of course shooting would be near impossible in such low a light. It was however, so cozy and to some extent, romantic (had we been in the mood).

So anyway, we had Tom Yum Kun, Chicken in Thai sauce and basil, Thai seafood salad and jasmine rice. The Tom Yum Kun was as delicious as ever and their version had lots of vegetables in it. Thai chicken was a bit salty but it goes so well with the sweet dressing of the salad. Thai food has always been a favorite for us. Reminds us of our great Thai friends who are so good at making those so delicious Thai cuisines.

In our hunger and exhaustion, we didn`t even realize that we just had a candle lit dinner in a formal restaurant in our shorts! and later did we also realize that there is a special price for those beautiful seats as indicated in our receipt. Tehehehe it must have cost them a fortune to import those chairs from Thailand.