Ushi no hi

So it turns out that "unagi day" is more correctly known as "ushi no hi" or "ox day". And the day of the ox is such-named in the same tradition of the animals of the Chinese zodiac. Each animal also has a day on the calendar, marking some shift or change in seasons. Anyway, we eat unagi on the day of the ox because unagi is believed to be good for circulation and therefore a good food to help you "fight" the heat. This is just a brief history of the whole story, because the day of the ox is in the summer, which in Japan is typically hot, humid, and stickily gross, but is overall unimportant compared to the fact that I had a YUMMY smorgasboard of unagi goodness and Japanese food on Friday night:

Home-made inari sushi, daikon-carrot salad and goma-ae were made by party host Natalie; green salad made by yours truly; unagi grilled on Nat's home grill by Erez (slightly burnt on bottom but you can't tell by this pic!)

Store-bought sushi from Sushi Bong, edged with yummy soft tofu and a plate of gyozas that I bought from TnT a few days ago.