Hi again

[cjsmith]

My hotel room in Shibuya-ku (Tokyo) also has free Internet access, if you know enough to go down to the front desk and snag a cable.

I have now slept on a futon in a room covered with tatami mats and enclosed by rice paper doors. I have eaten things I do not ever want to know the name of. I have probably walked ten cumulative miles inside train stations. I have learned where to go to purchase nonfunctional demo models of cellphones, the gazillion-knob toilet seats, a Walkman the size of a lipstick case, or a dishwasher the size of my purse. I have learned not to answer the phone "Moshi-moshi" unless I am completely prepared to continue the conversation in Japanese. (oops.)

No matter how yummy the picture in the advertisement looks, I am *not* ordering out for octopus and mayonnaise pizza. No. Even if it weren't thirty-six dollars.

Square dancing tomorrow.

(ps: it's 7:50pm.)

Comments

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, I have totally forgotten why you are in Japan and how long you will be there. Do you mind enlightening me? I love reading first hand travel accounts.

If it was the saffron & garlic mayo that is often served with calamari (deep fried octopus) I might try the pizza. Not raw octopus though.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Square dance calling, of course! ;-) Did a little bit of that yesterday (er, Monday) and will start in earnest Friday afternoon. We've seen lots of castles and temples, deer that chase down tourists for bits of cracker, Hiroshima, and some mindwarping snippets of Tokyo. We return to the States this coming Monday afternoon (arriving Monday morning).

Octopus would probably be rejected by my body, so I wouldn't try that either. But I have had a Japanese pizza made in an okinomi-yagi restaurant. It was a great theatrical experience watching the pizza get cooked on my table, and it tasted wonderful too!

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

*palmforehead*

I did not realize that the square dance calling prep and the learning Japanese were connected. Silly me. Why wouldn't people like square dance in Japan? (;

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

The folks who get into it here *really* get into it. They wear the costumes a lot more readily than I will :-)

[anisoptera.livejournal.com]

My grandparents were into square dancing and I remember my grandmother's dresses.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

I love the Japanese native version of pizza, really more of a pancake... although again, avoiding mayo was a problem for me ;).

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I loved that too. I hope I can have another. Mine didn't have mayo; I just had to avoid the shrimp.