Fun bits

[cjsmith]

It's weird when I go on a fairly brief trip and after I get home I start *missing* stuff.

I want to wander into someplace and hear someone who is paying just about zero attention to me or to anyone else call out nasally, "Irashaimasseeeeeeeeeee."

I want to watch five passengers AND all their luggage for three days fit jovially into a cab and zoom off.

I want mochi. At least that's what my coworker tells me they are called. The bean paste things.

I want to square dance to someone who says "reft arremande".

I want to get kissed on the head by a dragon.

I want to ride a subway with two full-color flat-screen displays over each door, one running ads and one spelling out the station name three different ways and diagramming how many minutes to the following stations and showing a picture of exactly which cars, in this next station, will pull up next to stairways.

I want prewarmed moist hand towels presented to me before each meal.

I want to watch a couple of friends greet each other, having a brief but animated conversation while bobbing up and down between about thirty and forty-five degrees off the vertical -- never once standing all the way up -- looking happy as clams.

I want to coax a semi-wild cat into letting me scritch him.

Ah, travel. Sometimes I recognize just a few more of the good bits after I've returned home.

Comments

[karenbynight.livejournal.com]

Indeed. The bay area is a lovely place for a nipponophile; in addition to Japantown in SF, there's Nijiya Market (http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?Pyt=Typ&tuid=16194458&ck=2835884887&tab=B2C&ycat=7766835&city=Sunnyvale&state=CA&zip=94089-1206&uzip=94089&country=us&msa=7400&cs=9&ed=ndOMEa160Sxd4evjq7EhWPQPMJS0K3.tBTvekOltUgQ8E6pyzPZFeUt_uQrwWqtKPdKKnEd3ZOcb.EMx&stat=:pos:7:regular:regT:20:fbT:0) in Sunnyvale and Mitsuwa Marketplace (http://yp.yahoo.com/py/ypMap.py?Pyt=Typ&tuid=17222153&ck=1343914864&tab=B2C&ycat=7766835&city=Sunnyvale&state=CA&zip=94089-1206&uzip=94089&country=us&msa=7400&cs=9&ed=ndOMEa160Sxd4evjq7EhWPQPMJS0K3.tBTvekOltUgQ8E6pyzPZFeUt_uQrwWqtKPdKKnEd3ZOcb.EMx&stat=:pos:7:regular:regT:20:fbT:0) in San Jose. The latter is particularly delightful; it has its own japanese pickle department and a Kinounaya book & stationary store and a japanese computer store in the same lot.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Oooo, both of those are easily reachable from where I live/work! Thank you! I have yet to figure out what time zone "Ranch 99" is in (my exaggeration meaning I am *not* going to drive far for it, not even for mochi) so these are useful references. :-)