Entries this day: Japanese_restaurant_lunch_with_Liz Train_success

Japanese restaurant lunch with Liz

5:27pm JST Wednesday 22 October 2003

Didn't go to Hakkejima Seaside Paradise because it rained pretty much all day. Did however get a call from Liz and went to a restaurant with her.

Things to remember, most of which were awesome:

• Car navigation with various convenience store locations projected on the map

• When the put the car into reverse to park, the navigation turned into a screen displaying what was behind her! Little camera on the back of the van shows what's going on back there and the predicted direction (depending on how the wheels are aligned) was projected on the screen!!

• When she turned the car off, the sideview mirrors folded in automatically! (to conserve space and keep from getting banged)

• Nice restaurant and when we arrived, we took off our shoes at the door (this isn't done everywhere in Japan). Our shoes were the only shoes there. (but we were not the only customers)

• The entire restaurant had tatami flooring. 2.5 foot squares all over the place. Fun to pad around on that in socks

• Liz asked the staff to ask me all the questions so I could have practice with listening and responding to/in Japanese. I could hear parts of what they said, but not really enough to do more than request a non smoking area for two.

• Because I tried so valiantly to speak Japanese, and this was like a training for me, they put us in our own room designed for four people. One table in the room and sliding paper door. Sliding paper windowscreen to reveal a (small!) rock garden with bamboo in pots

• I got to ask the waitress what she recommended, "isosomenandeska?" (I think), and I got to try some new foods

• We ended up with a spread of different dishes, mostly in bowls and a couple in plates. One of her dishes was served in a miniature wooden chest with three ceramic drawers. How Japanese is that?? (I woulda taken a picture, but I didn't have my camera.)

• One of my dishes was served with a fire underneath it, and another one was served in a bamboo box, all the pieces of which came apart for cleaning.

• Most of the food was soft and bland, but a couple had flavor. I'd never had tofu as soft as this; it was like fresh pudding.

• I got to help her with ideas for her 14-15 year old exchange student, telling her what to likely expect from that age. I hope it proves helpful. I'm glad I was able to offer some insights.

Train success

6:01pm JST Wednesday 22 October 2003

Woah. That was close.

The train looked like a normal Toyoko line train (same interior and exterior), but the map on the interior was different than I'm used to. (I didn't *look* at the map, but saw it for some reason)

We stopped on the wrong side of Jiogaoka station, given that it was a local train, and some peeps got off. I was like, "err?" and asked the cat next to me, "shibuya ikimaska?"

"ikimasen" and he pointed to the other side of the platform.

"uh oh." Oh shit, and I got up and barely made it out the door.

Yay! I escaped the wrong train just at the last second!