Hopping like Rabbits

SUNDAY, AUGUST 22

Was not very productive in the morning, as I mostly chatted with friends back home, but I did empty the garbage and do several loads of laundry, including my futon covers over the weekend, so I count it a good weekend. Futon covers, by the way, are incredibly annoying to put back on a futon.

In the afternoon, I met up with Andrew, who lives in the next town over. We had been planning to rendez-vous on Saturday and I would bike there, but with the weather over 95 in my apartment, I decided to not sunburn and we rescheduled.

So, I hopped the train by myself for the first time. I ended up exiting at the wrong side of the station, so it took some texting to figure out where Andrew was. We ended up walking up to the big shopping mall, which is a highlight of the city to look around. Besides taking many more pictures of Engrish, we visited a little local market with fresh food (and very expensive cheese) and checked out various Japanese products which we tried to figure out the use for.

Finally, and probably a highlight, we stopped by Baskin Robins and got ice cream. Oh, deliciousness. And, Lovely, Lovely, Lovely Japan had a sale going on. (Price, in Japan, often has no baring on quantity.) One smalls scoop was only fifty cents less than one large scoop AND one small scoop. Scoops in Japan are also perfectly round balls that balance precariously on top of one another. I savored my chocolate.

Upstairs was an arcade, so we headed there to browse. Andrew had told me about a bunny game, so we went to check it out and eventually tried it. How it works: you stand on a platform kind of like a skate board. Your character is some pastel colored fluff ball on a pogo stick. By jumping on the board, you advance your character down the race course. If you want to turn, you hop on just one side of the board. Andrew beat me by 2 seconds. And, embarrassingly, my legs hurt after that. Also, you must look adorably silly playing the game. I can only imagine what two old gaijin like us looked like. We then went to try the Taiko Master, the Taiko Drum version of Guitar Hero. Again Andrew beat me, but this time he clobbered me. We will not dwell on this event too much. There were even games for adults, including leather chairs to sit back and bet on animated horse racing.

After this, it was getting late, so we went to grab food. The restaurant was about a 20 minute hike away from the station, but that was okay. I'd been hearing about this fabled place all week. Apparently Andrew, who also speaks no Japanese and is a vegetarian, walked in here his first week and said “Bejitarian desu” and they brought him an elaborate specially-made meal for quite cheap. Obviously, as he doesn't cook at home, he's become a regular. The last time he was there, apparently they didn't even talk to him. They seated him and 15 minutes later, food showed up.

So, needless to say, this prospect was exciting. We showed up and got a table and really hot hand towels. I don't think I've mentioned this but all restaurants in Japan, including the Nepali one, give you a plastic wrapped moist cloth towel to wipe off your hands with before the meal. Even on the airplane over, they did this. (Side note: I've been having a hard time finding dish cloths or face cloths here, so I've been buying these little hand things and they work wonderfully, even if it's not their designed purpose.) They did hand us a menu (all in Japanese) because I was there. But, when the server next came by, a quick “we are vegetarian” was enough and, BAM!, 20 minutes later (when I had started assuming that a statement like that probably couldn't be assumed to be an order.) food shows up!

And, oh god, so much food! A big plate of vegetables in a sweet sauce. Rice (Andrew's rice bowl was twice as big as mine), salad, soup, tofu, sesame seeds, and on, and on! I was shocked by all the food and pulled out my camera to get a picture and Andrew said to wait until the rest of it showed up. I stared, flabbergasted, and, at that moment, the server showed up with “the rest of it.”

As much as I like cooking, it was nice to let someone else do it for a change. We chatted a lot about iPhones, Elizabeth, schools, teaching, English clubs, and socially about our friends back home. I mentioned Lonn and Alan and Olivia, and he talked about several friends, including his girlfriend in California. Which makes me glad, because I don't want any misunderstandings to arise. I'm in this for the company and the vegetarian food. And because, really, I get along with guys so much better than girls.

After my $11 meal, we parted ways, him home and me back to the train station. I ended up missing a train by about 4 minutes and had to hang around another 20 for the next train. I'm lucky, though, as had I been 20 minutes later, the next train, and last train, wouldn't be for an hour.

I was exhausted as I got home and was not quite perky for Monday morning.