The wonder of lunch at Kikugawa

This past Sunday afternoon I went out to lunch with a friend from church at Kikugawa, a Japanese restaurant in Northeast Minneapolis. I've walked and driven by it many times on my way to the Wilde Roast Cafe (one of my favorite restaurants) next door. Every time I've seen the paper lanterns softly glowing in the windows, I've made a mental note to stop in there...sometime. I just don't like going out to eat by myself, especially if it's a new place, because it's a lot more fun to share that experience with someone else. If it's a good meal, you have that shared joy of discovering a new treasured place to eat. If it's bad, you have someone to commiserate with and laugh about it later. Anyways, it's been at the back of my mind to go there for a while.

I loved it, and not just because the food was delicious. I will admit I am easily pleased, so it doesn't take much to make me happy. And I've also never eaten at a Japanese restaurant before. But from the tasty udon to the view to the quiet music, it was kind of magical. It may sound silly, but it felt like I stepped into a Miyazaki movie.

Maybe the more jaded of you might think I'm far too juvenile, to find enjoyment in things like the banners hanging over the entrance of the restaurant and the classical Japanese music softly playing in the background. It was just after noon when we got there, so there really weren't too many other people there. A couple was seated several tables away, and there was a small group further inside celebrating someone's birthday, but that was about it. My friend and I just talked and looked out over the river, the occasional jogger going by, actually managing to eat most of our food with chopsticks. It was the best kind of solitude, if that makes sense.

I don't know, I find something fantastical about experiences like this. I tend to see magic and wonder in the so called "little things." I just get a lot of joy from something as simple as sharing a tasty meal with good company. I enjoy mountaintops and sweeping vistas just as much as the next person, but there's a quiet thrill in discovering new places right near where I live. Things like finally checking out a new store that I've been driving by every day for the past two months to discover they have very cute and affordable clothes; or taking a different route home just to see what's down a different street; just shaking myself out of my routine and forcing myself to look at the world around me with fresh eyes.

I like to think of it as being a tourist in my own city. When you're from out of town, everything is exciting and worth investigating. "What's that place? Why is that big sign there? What's over here? Let's go down these steps or walk across this bridge." It's easy to drive by something all the time and just not see it anymore. Or telling yourself, "Oh, I'll get there someday sometime, just not today."

If I see something interesting and I don't really have anything on my agenda, I'll stop, just to say I checked it out. The worst that could happen is that it's not really that neat, but it only took five minutes or whatever out of my day--no big loss. However, if it's awesome, then I have a discovery to share! That's how I found my favorite places to get chai tea, the perfect sandwich, good quality shoes, excellent bread, and now Japanese food: I took the time to explore simply because it's fun and you never know what you might discover.