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

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Shibuya, eh? Home of vast shopping and hordes of painfully-trend-conscious tennagers, as I recall... I wouldn't mind importing one of the bidet/toilets, except they cost $1K over here.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

There's vast shopping all through Tokyo, yeah. I think I'm not even going to set foot in the Ginza area. Akihabara was dangerous enough!

Wow, $1K? Yikes. Just for the seat and conversion, or for a whole porcelain unit? I just wandered through my photos from two days ago and just the seats are in the $300-400 range. But maybe *all* the plumbing is expected to exist already.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

Akihabara? Heh. Explains the temptation to buy stuff... I got my tiny Casio Exlim there, 6 months before they turned up at Fry's. Although the weak dollar can't be helpful.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yes, the weak dollar is definitely a painful part of this trip.

[brian1789.livejournal.com]

And $1K was for a whole unit... the seats here are typically $600-700.