Jinja and Shoga: Life in the Land of the Rising Sun

   This past Tuesday, we drove down to Yokosuka, which is about an hour from Yokohama. The main point of the trip was to take Sushi in for her spay/declaw, but since we had about 5 hours to wait during her surgery and recovery period, we toured the downtown area. (Side note: I REALLY wish that vets here would keep pets overnight for observation after surgery!).
  Yokosuka is famous mostly as a Navy base: it was a port  for the Imperial Japanese Navy, and now some of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force facilities are there, along with a rather large US Navy base. Going along with the Navy theme, Yokosuka is also known for its curry: Kaigun Kare, aka Navy Curry.
 The Japanese Navy adopted a variation of the British navy's stew in the Meiji era after many Japanese sailors came down with beri beri (caused by vitamin B1 deficiency) during long voyages, due to their diet of mostly miso soup, white rice, and pickles. The stew was thickened and adapted to fit Japanese taste, and thus Kaigun Curry (Kare) was born. It was served over white rice, forming the basis for the still-popular 'kare-rice'. Even now, Fridays are curry day at the Japan Maritime Self Defense Force cafeteria.
  In 1999, as part of an effort to increase tourism in Yokosuka, city officials began promoting Yokosuka Kaigun Curry (many areas of Japan are well-known for their speciality foods). About 60 restaurants and shops now serve Kaigun Curry, curry bread, packaged curry, etc.
  We stopped by Yokosuka Kaigun Curry Honpo, one of the main souvenir shops/restaurants. And, lo and behold, they were selling CURRY ICE CREAM!!! Now, admittedly, while I will try just about anything, this sounded like it could be either pretty good or else really gross. I prepared myself for the worst and decided to taste it anyway. Just in case it was really awful, we got a curry/chocolate swirl cone so that at least half of it was guaranteed ok. After staring at the curry-yellow swirls for a minute, I took a lick....and it was GOOD! Mildly sweet but with a kick of curry spice at the end. I really loved it, but Yuki was definitely not a fan, sadly. He did at least get to enjoy some of the chocolate ice cream before me and my pregnant self scarfed the rest of the cone down.
  On a final note, Sushi's recovering ok, although I personally spent a sleepless night on Tuesday, checking on her constantly and worrying about when her anesthesia would wear off. She's been resting a lot but also jumping around like a monkey since yesterday afternoon though, so I'm pretty sure she's on the mend!


                                             Outside Yokosuka Kaigun Curry Honpo

                               The curry/chocolate swirl cone