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

[abz6598.livejournal.com]

I hear Japanese men have a thing for American blondes. Any experiences or encounters yet to bear this out? Gropings in elevators, etc, etc?

[oddhack.livejournal.com]

When I was a military brat in Tokyo in the late 60s, many Japanese people seemed to find my (at the time) very light blond hair fascinating. No gropings though :-) But I did at one point find myself dressed up in a sumo breechclout and in the ring with a real sumo wrestler - at about age 6. I have no recollection of what this was all about - lots of little kids involved - but I do remember it because it was among the most terrifying experiences of my childhood :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I probably would have had a heart attack right there!

A square dance caller friend of ours, a blond-haired man probably about six feet tall, was approached on one of his trips to Japan by a gaggle of schoolkids who told him to "act smo". After a little confusion he realized they wanted him to pretend to be a sumo wrestler. I'm not sure I get it...

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I think I'm too old for them. And way too tall.