Leo and Amy's house, Los Altos, California

Diary:

Against all odds, we departed San Francisco International Airport on United flight 554 and arrived in Anchorage, Alaska without incident. Given all the chaos and confusion of the past few weeks: packing, throwing parties, storing, throwing parties, quitting jobs, throwing parties, etc., there was complete agreement between us that managing to actually depart on schedule was our first major achievement of the trip.

Anchorage was dark, misty, cold and rainy. We checked into the Inlet Inn Downtown, which offered clean, basic rooms close to the center of town. We dumped our gear and ventured outside and within minutes came across the very unassuming shopfront of Yamaya Seafoods Restaurant. This one had been recommended to us so we walked in and were immediately greeted with the customary Japanese welcome "Irrashaimasu!". It felt as if we had just warped into a Tokyo izakaya. The only customers in sight were Japanese and Japanese menus decorated the walls. A group of drunk and raucous Japanese fishermen at one table added extra authenticity - it was just like being at the fish markets at Tsukiji! The food we ate there was outstanding. I ordered the Alaskan sashimi plate, Keiko had the Alaska donburi, and we both had steaming hot miso soup with great juicy chunks of Alaskan king crab legs. The hotategai and amaebi were exquisite.

Our trip was off to a great start, at least from a culinary standpoint! It remained to be seen whether the standard would be maintained once we hit the road.

Photos: (click on images to see full size)