Two, four, six, eight! Sometimes it's good to stop the hate.

As much as I am having a hard time adjusting to my new surroundings and douchebag neighbors, there are a few things up here that have either made me feel at home or just better for a while. I'll add as necessary, but here's a few to get things crackalating.

In no particular order:

The surprising sushi scene
No typo there, there's some pretty good sushi to be found up here. Granted, I'm not used to largemouth rolls or spicy walleye, but it's a start. Two stand out especially for me, as they are the only two I've been to.

Fuji-Ya is the big dog of the Twin Cities. I went there with folks who'd lived in Japan for a few years and knew more than our server about the entire menu and that's their sushi bar of choice. Great sushi, great quality fish, some of the best I've had ever.

When we walked out, I leaned to The Girl and told her that in the words of the immortal Bigfoot, that "Fuji-Ya like rainbow in hell." Endorsements don't get much better than that.

Second in the lineup is Ichiban which features all-you-can-eat for one hour and an early bird special which makes the sushi there really fucking affordable. Now, making the whole thing that much cooler is the setup for the cultural mainlining at the restaurant.

Think on this problem for a second. You need to push roughly 150 burly Norse motherfuckers through the door, shoving as much fish into them in a one hour period as you can. How do you keep Hagar the Horrible and his buddies from rioting?

You feed them on tiny boats. The sushi is prepared in the center of an island with a water track circling them and seating around that. Imagine sitting in front of a tiny moat with an endless chain of boats circling as Japanese chefs holler about what's hitting the fleet next. Bonus points for sitting upstream and grabbing good stuff before you fellow diners can get at them. I almost caused a fistfight with my buddy Flynn by snatching the eel rolls as they rounded the bend.

I'd suggest switching up the seating order in 15-minute shifts to avoid this problem.

The moon

The moon here is really bright. You could read by the thing some nights. It's about the only thing right now that's markedly different than Chicago that isn't weirding me out or outright pissing me off.

It has to be less smog, but really, really bright.

No lie.

(Photo by Origami Restaurant)