Dave & Buster's on Crack

This weekend was extremely busy and so very fun. I don't want to write about it all in one post so I'll break it up into at least a couple.

Saturday evening we were invited out with a Japanese couple to "eat an eel" and to check out a sportscenter. I know I have previously mentioned that eel is not my favorite of all Japanese cuisine, but I have changed my mind. We had an absolutely delicious dinner. It was so much better than the last time I had eaten it. I chowed down on it until I was full. So yummy!

Here's a pic of our dinner. It is suggested to eat the eel in three stages. The first stage includes removing about a third of the eel/rice concoction, placing it in that blue and white bowl and eating it basically as it is with large chunks of eel and with a little bit of rice. There is also a delightful sauce you add to it. The next stage is when you take a second portion of the eel and rice and mix it all together in the blue and white bowl. At this point, you can also add some of the green onions and wasabi to it. I also added the sauce again. For the last stage, you mash the rice and eel together and add green tea to it to make a soup. I skipped the last stage and decided just to eat mine the first way I described as it was delicious!

After eating the eel for energy, we made our way to a sportscenter. The best way I can describe it is as a Dave & Buster's on crack. It is enormous and so fun! It includes six floors of every game you can possibly imagine, and the top floor is reserved for outdoor sports. You can play tennis, volleyball, enjoy a batting cage, play darts, shoot pool, ride a mechanical bull, get a massage in a massage chair, shoot pellet guns and play a bazillion arcade games. There is also a bowling alley on the third floor. We walked in and our jaws instantly dropped. Needless to say, we had a great time and will be going back in the near future.

This is the ground floor of the sportscenter. On this level, you play with tokens. Most of the games on this level are similar to ones you'd find in a casino. They have slot machines, bingo and magnetic horse racing. There are also tons of those crane games where you can grab stuffed animals, candy or ice cream. I got pretty addicted to one of those coin sliding games. We were playing with tokens, but it reminded me so much of the hours I spent playing the quarter games at the Tri-County Fair. Not a great way to spend your allowance but very entertaining.

In addition to all the games, there is also a skating rink. At a certain time each evening, the skating rink closes and patrons have the opportunity to ride little motorcycles. I immediately knew I had no interest in such a thing. Those of you who know me well know that I despise "playing" with any sort of motorized vehicle. I loathe go-carts and hate any sort of racing activities. Too many real-life accidents, I suppose. 

Travis was all over it. So, he and the Japanese couple signed up to ride. I volunteered to take pictures and laugh my tail off!

This is right before the race. 

Eager to begin.

It's worth noting that there is a weight-limit for these bikes. Our Japanese friend thought it appropriate to fib about Travis' weight by oh, say 45 lbs. or so! As soon as they took off, the reasoning for the weight-limit became obvious.

Don't be fooled by Travis' placement in this photo. He is about to be lapped for the third time. His bike was barely going. I thought the back tire was going to blow out. It was one of the funniest events I have ever witnessed. The best part was that after the race was finished, a manager approached Travis and apologized repeatedly for his slow bike. He informed Travis that he thought the bike hadn't been charged sufficiently. Right...