Book Club in Japan

I have been missing my 2 book clubs at home, so I was delighted to see an ad for one in a foreigner magazine published in this area. I attended this afternoon, and had a great time. Unlike my clubs in Ft. Collins, this club was coed, with 4 men and 4 women. We met in a private room in a French restaurant. Very nice and not expensive.

There were 2 Japanese, 1 Brit, 1 Irish, 1 Scot, 1 Spaniard, a young man from Mississippi (could have fooled me--he didn't even sound American) and me. We were discussing a Japanese novel by Haruki Murakami, a very prolific novelist. I guess he is best know for Norwegian Wood. Anyway, we read A Wild Sheep Chase, an interesting if weird book. It was a great discussion. Of course, there is always the one student in class who feels it necessary to dominate the discussion, (the kid from Mississippi), but the disparate backgrounds made for a fascinating afternoon. I feel so fortunate to have met so many interesting folks here in Japan.

Tokyo Trip and life in general

Afew folks crossing street Wedding at the shrine

Freshly killed eel

I've fallen off with my blogs recently as, true to form, I have managed to schedule myself up to the gills, just as I did back home. Tennis twice a week, Japanese lessons 3 times a week, and I joined a health club. Anyway, I went to visit Scott 2 weeks ago in Tokyo. Got on the bullet train on Friday night after work and zipped up to see him. It took 3 hours and $275 to do this. (I later discovered I could buy slightly cheaper tickets at a discount shop, but you live, you learn.) His girl friend was visiting from LA, so I got to meet her for the first time. I liked her a lot. They took me to a Mexican restaurant Friday night. This might not sound that exciting to you, but believe me, it was a treat, margaritas and all. Scott's place is awesome, complete with a concierge, marble hallways and a night time view of Tokyo tower. It sort of looks like the Eiffel tower all lit up.

We got up really early on Saturday to go to Tsukiji, the Tokyo fish market, which I guess is the largest in the world. You need to go early to see the tuna auction. They have all these frozen tuna lying on the floor, with people checking the meat with a poker of some kind. Then auctioneers do their thing. It's kind of dangerous there with motorized carts buzzing around all over the place. I almost got run down a couple of times. Amy, Scott's girl, is a photographer, so she took about a million shots, trying to tell a story. It's quite an experience. Then walking through the market I saw more different kinds of sea creatures than I knew existed. We had the privelege(?) of seeing vats of squirming eels and watch the guy slit their throats. I guess you're supposed to eat sushi after you finish touring the market. Somehow, I can't bring myself to eat sushi at 7 a.m., so I grabbed a sweet roll instead.

Later that morning we went to the old part of Tokyo, Asakusa, and strolled around the souvenir shops (till Scott could take it no longer). I bought a Japanese geisha doll. Very pretty. We also had yakisoba for the first time in a traditional little restaurant. The center of your table is a grill. First we had okonomiaki, which is kind of a cabbage pancake. They mixed up the stuff, poured it on our grill and told us to flip it in 2 minutes. We made such a mess of it, that they cooked the yakisoba for us. (The neighboring table cooked their own.) They call it chop suey for the English menu, but that isn't exactly right. It was delicious, with pork, noodles, cabbage, and I don't know what else.

That night we went to a gaijin (foreigner) bar. Scott's got a sweet deal there. The brokers he deals with invite him to go out with them and then they pay for everything. Apparently, as long as they're entertaining clients, their company pays. So it's a simbiotic relationship. There were some interesting folks from the UK, Ireland and other parts.

The next day was a rainy Sunday. We went to the Meiji Shrine, walked through the park, saw a wedding, shook sticks out of a hole to get our fortune, and sat in a cafe watching enormous numbers of people walk by with their umbrellas. Then back on the train to go home. Great weekend.