The last couple weekends I’ve tired to fit a lot in. Steve and I have to size some of our pics from this past weekend (we went to a festival for the harvest moon at a Shinto shrine and then went to Nara to see that giant Buddha at Todaiji), so I’ll talk about that later when I can post the pics here.

For now, I’ll catch up on the weekend before last. One day I tired to go shopping and it turned into a very frustrating affair. A lot of people say its hard to get lost in Japan and its true that with the various mountains as land markers and insanely efficient public transportation that its much easier to get around than a lot of places in the US, but I can still get myself lost or turned around. I had a terrible time of it when I tried to go to this huge mega-mall called ‘Diamond City’. I took the more local train system (JR), which only has one train instead of the Kintetsu line (which has 5: local, semi-express, exp, sub-rapid exp., rapid exp., and limited exp.). You’d think it’d be easier, but because its smaller there’s very little English on the signs. Anyway, I got on the train going the wrong direction, finally got off and headed the correct direction, then stayed on the same train at a large stop and ended up headed BACK in the wrong direction because it was the end of the line for that particular train and I didn’t know to transfer. It was a mess, I never made it and walked home in the rain.

However, that weekend Steve and I met up with our friend Keiko and her friend Mika for lunch and that was great! Since Steve had never had ‘real’ sushi, Keiko took us to a really nice conveyer belt sushi place. It was more casual than the formal Japanese-style restaurants that you usually get the best sushi at (like the place Morii-sensei, my supervisor, took me when I first arrived), so it suited us better. (Keiko’s not very into Japanese culture anyway!) It may not sound like ‘conveyer belt’ sushi would be too appetizing, but it was a really good place! For one, it was small and you could ask for any item you wanted to be made fresh, so you didn’t have to just take what was going by on the belt. Also, the price ranged from 100 yen (= $1) to 800 yen and it was definitely worth it! I’ve since been to a typical conveyer belt sushi place where everything is 100 yen and it was sooo sad compared to this place! I was also impressed with the tea selection and the fact that there was a spout built into the counter where you could fill your teacup with hot water (but not boiling- just right). Steve surprised Keiko and Mika by trying everything and anything put before him, but I was more tentative. The salmon was fantastic, and the tuna and eggplant sushi were great too. I tried this crab sushi, but ended up handing it over to Steve. It didn’t taste bad, but it was a very strong, pungent sea flavor that was a bit much for me. (It was a grey paste made from the inside of the crab shell.) Steve finally had his first taste of eel there as well and he loved it! Eel is generally cooked for sushi and its very soft, not at all chewy like octopus or squid. And for those of you who thought sushi was all raw fish, that’s sashimi. Sushi refers more to the special rice that’s used and although raw fish is often put on top, they use many other things as well.
So the lunch was very good and we made plans to all try and go to see a sumo match and a bunraku play in the future too! Actually, Keiko has already purchased bunraku tickets for us for later this month! I’m so excited! Bunraku is a traditional puppet play. It takes 3-4 people to operate one puppet because all the movements are so complex and detailed- even the eyes and ears move! The national bunraku theater is right in Osaka, so I was determined to see a performance. No word on the sumo match yet, though!



So, after lunch we moved to a café for dessert.
Keiko started talking more about her trips to the US and how she watched ALL of Beverly Hills 90210 on Japanese TV (dubbed) and that when she visited LA she took the 90210 tour and knew the answer to every single question the guide asked! Even obscure places, she could things like, “This is where Valerie tried to kill herself and Brandon stopped her!” Yeah, Keiko’s a trip! She’s in her 30’s, unhappy in her married life and as obsessed with America as I am with Japan! She also learns a lot of slang from her American guy friends and tends to swear a lot. She’s very aggressive and outspoken for someone whose Japanese. Her friend Mika was quieter, but then she admitted that when she was in college in Tokyo she was a wild girl! She even got a tattoo (its since been removed), which is crazy rebellious in Japanese culture, since tattoos are almost exclusively synonymous with the mofia (yakuza). This is why I can’t join my local gym and why I’ll have to hide my tattoos if I want to be allowed inside a hot spring resort (onsen). So, it was very interesting to talk to these rebellious Japanese women! Keiko especially, since she would make these awesome comments while she was showing us pictures from her last trip to LA- like, “I want to be a bunny in Beverly Hills, because they get to live in this beautiful place and all they have to do his eat and screw all day!” Sorry for the vulgarity, but it was damn funny!



When we were leaving we took some pictures.
Most of them were in front of Keiko BMW (she seems to have a fondness for pics in front of cars). Then before Keiko dropped us back home, Steve gave her a little ‘thank you’ card from us both. He’d gone to the stationary store and didn’t know what to choose, so he picked the one envelope that didn’t have any writing on it… then later thought, “I wonder if the yellow and white signifies something.” Well, neither of us knew, so we just gave her the card. She looked surprised and started busting up laughing. Turns out the envelope is only used for one occasion: to present the bereaved with money at a funeral! Keiko was laughing and said, “I wondered if someone died, but my mother-in-law is still alive!”



Good thing she had a sense of humor about it!

So, that was the weekend before last. More Japanese craziness! I’ll get to this weekend soon. It was SO up and down! Friday classes were awful, but I organized a group of friends to go to a harvest moon-viewing festival in nearby Sakurai and it was amazing! Then I had to work again Sat, tired to relax Sunday and Monday, and went to Nara with Steve Tues.
But more on that later. Tired now…