Last Friday Night......yeah we danced on table tops....yeah we ate at an Izakaya...

Oh. Wait. Those aren't the words to that song. And I'm not sure if it completely fits how our Friday night went. We did do some drinking....but I'm pretty sure none of us danced on table tops. There was some singing though. And maybe a little dancing. And now it wasn't even last Friday night. It was more like two Friday nights ago. I liked the title when I started writing this post over a week ago though so I'm keeping it.

I'm sure the only thing you are wondering at this point is, "what's an Izakaya?" Izakayas are a style of restaurant in Japan. I always think of them as a munch and drink place. They have a wide variety of food, but they are in small portions so you can munch away on many different things. They usually have a wide variety of drinks, and a lot of them offer all-you-can-drink plans.

Our choice for a girls night out was Shirokiya. Shirokiya is one of my favorite izakayas in Iwakuni. Great food. Service is usually pretty good. And they have an all-you-can-drink plan. For 90 minutes it's 1,000yen and for 120 minutes it's 1,500yen. We went with the 120 minutes plan. I do have to warn you that the all-you-can-drink menu for drinks is different than the regular one so some of the drinks in their big menu are not available for the all-you-can-drink. So, if you just plan on having a few I would just pay for each drink separately. Some of the really yummy cocktails are 398yen each so the prices aren't too bad.

One of my favorite cocktails -

Strawberry Sour! With chunks of strawberries!! Unfortunately, this is not on the all-you-can-drink menu. Booooooo!!
So I drank these all night instead...

Cassis Soda. Very good!!


Now for the important stuff. Food! They have so many things to choose from! I like to order a bunch of different dishes and just have everyone eat whatever they want. It's also a great way to try something you have never eaten before. And if you're worried about how to do the bill at the end of the evening, just split it. Some places do not let you split the bill at the register, and this is one of them. Besides, it's too difficult to figure out who pays for what when everyone was eating everything. Splitting it just makes things so much easier.

Here are some of the fabulous dishes we ordered -

This onion dish was soooooo good. If you like onions. I do!!

Edamame (soy beans) deep fried in wonton wrappers. Yes! I said FRIED! These are addictive!

This was bacon wrapped OKRA. MmmHmmmm.....bacon wrapped. I'm pretty sure there was more than one on the plate when it was brought out, but it seems someone didn't understand the rules. Nobody touches the food until Linda has taken a picture of it. Yes, even if it means Linda has to take a bunch of pictures.

There are a few items on the menu that I ALWAYS order. Bacon wrapped asparagus is one of them. One plate comes with two pieces so I usually order a couple of plates (or three, or four....). You get the choice of sauce or just salted. I prefer the salted, but if there are people at the table who have never been to Shirokiya before, I'll order both so they can try both and then decide which one they prefer.

I also love their yakitori (chunks of chicken on a stick). These are also two to a plate so I order a few. I prefer these with sauce so that is what I usually get, but some people like them just salted. I suggest ordering a plate of each and then you can see which one you prefer.

I love it when it takes me half the evening to realize my camera is on the wrong setting. And I couldn't even blame it on the alcohol.


If you like salad, their seafood salad is pretty tasty. Get it with the sesame dressing. Mmmmmmm!! The caesar salad is also pretty good. I didn't get a picture of the salad.......and I'm not sure why.

We also ordered this amazing camembert cheese croquettes. Wow!

Ummmm...it's got cheese in it and it's FRIED. Need I say more? I think I have found a new favorite.


The menu is in English AND it has pictures!!

Shirokiya is a pretty big restaurant. Quite a few tables and they also have some party rooms.

I've planned some farewell dinners here and some birthday dinners. The party rooms are pretty spacious. You will have to take your shoes off though so don't forget to wear socks. I've also taken people who are here TAD to Shirokiya and they loved it. The variety of food on the menu makes it easy to take a group of people who all have different tastes. There's definitely something for everyone.

To get to this fantastic izakaya, go out the main gate and turn right at the very first light. Follow this road up and over the bridge. You will pass Mike's Tex Mex on your left. At the third light after you've crossed the bridge (I'm counting the one right at the bottom in front of Mike's), you'll turn left and go around this swirly (I like that word) overpass. At the light, turn right. Now, you can park at the train station (I do, but it is a little more expensive than other lots) or you can park at the new lot that's kind of across from Andersen Bakery. Shirokiya is on the same side of the street as Andersen's. Walk past Andersen Bakery and right after you pass Monte Beer (I'll be blogging about this place soon!), you will see some stairs on your left. Go up the stairs and you will see Shirokiya!

Great place for food and drinks!!

And if you feel like belting out a few tunes after dinner, there is a great karaoke place right next to Monte Beer. Nice karaoke rooms and you can continue munching and drinking while you sing! That's what we did. Some singing, some dancing, lots of drinking, and some more singing!

Uhei (Fish Tank)

Last night I was a total pig. So much so that I have two places to blog about! Seriously.

It was Kelly and Andy's last night in Iwakuni (sad face) so we asked them where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do. They wanted to go to a few of the local bars one last time. Since we were staying close to base, we decided Uhei would be a great place for dinner. I haven't been to Uhei's since last year. It's a nice little izakaya close to base. Izakaya is a type of restaurant. The best way I can describe it is that it's and eat/drink place. The dishes you order are smaller portions so you can order a bunch of different things and kind of munch and drink. They are also meant to be shared. This way you get to have a variety of food. The food at Uhei is good. They even have a party room upstairs to accommodate larger groups.

We sat down and the guys ordered beers while Kelly and I ordered some hot tea and started looking over the menu. Let me preface this by saying, we were supposed to go to dinner about ...umm...two hours before this so we were all starving by the time we arrived at the restaurant. Starving!

We did share a basket of fried pickles at the club a few hours before heading to dinner.

The fried pickles at the club on base are addictive!

Okay. Back to our dinner. We picked out what we wanted and wrote them down on the piece of paper they provide on the table. We then handed our paper over to the really nice lady who works there. Within a few minutes, she came back with one of our items.

Edamame. I think I could eat bowl after bowl of these and be happy.

Then came our next dish -

Fried gyoza. Oh my gosh....isn't everything better fried??

After that, she just kept bringing out dish after dish after dish...

Sashimi platter

Tako and maguro sushi

Yakitori with onions and yakitori without onions

Tempura platter. Andy was ready to dig in! The pumpkin and the shrimp were so good!!!!

We were pretty stuffed and happy at this point. We still had some bars to hit and one more food stop before the night was over though so we decided to move on.

To get to Uhei's, go out main gate and go straight. At the light you want to make a hard right into the small road on the other side of the gas station that's on your right. As soon as you make the hard right, you'll see a small parking lot on your left. That is the parking for Uhei. Uhei is right next to the parking lot.

The light was on when we arrived, but I guess it was pretty late when we left. They are open from 5pm - 11pm (last order is at 10:30pm). Closed on Sundays.

If you're looking for something quick and near the base, Uhei is a great place to try out. You can even walk to it. I should have. I needed to work off all of the fried food I ingested throughout the evening. We did walk to the bar we went to afterwards. Does that count?

I wasn't done eating though. Check out my next blog to read about where we went for more food.