I had all but given up on a Thanksgiving-ish meal here in Japan, since pretty much the only place you can normally eat turkey around these parts is Subway, which is pretty expensive and also annoying because if you order a footlong sub they assume you’re splitting it with a family of 10. They also don’t sell chips.

On Thursday after work I grabbed some Burger King in Funabashi after my lesson, figuring that since I can’t eat turkey I might as well eat something American. KFC is all over the place here, but as we discovered in 2006 it’s also not nearly as good as fried chicken back in the States. At some point during that day I wrote a 1-line message on mixi, the Japanese equivalent of Facebook, saying “I want to eat turkey.” My friend Yoko replied on there saying that her restaurant had turkey that day, and I should have come.

W H A A A A A A A T ! ? ! ? !

Several e-mails later on Friday, I found out that Outback Steakhouse in Makuhari, where she works, still had some turkey left and she could save an order for me if I could make it. Damn right I could make it. I headed there straight after teaching in Soga, and enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with Bryan and Brian. The meal was roast turkey, a sliver of cranberry sauce, masked potatoes, broccoli, unlimited bread, and 7,000 “G’Day mates!” Overall it was really good and probably the closest to a real American Thanksgiving dinner I could expect around here. Also I think Bryan made the waiter pee his pants in fear. Thanks Yoko for saving the day.

Thanksgiving dinner at アウトバックステーキハウス海浜幕張店

I think my phone makes the food look bad; it looked way good in real life.