Month: October 2006

Despite the delay, I thought I should still put these pics up. Some coworkers and I went to a tasty-delicious restaurant in Nagoya in the beginning of October. I have no idea what the name of the restaurant is (my Japanese reading skills still aren’t exactly up to par) but it’s a ‘yaki niku’ style restaurant (pronounce, yah-key nee-koo). And what that actually means is that there’s a big smorgasbord of raw food on ice in front of you, you pick out what you want and they grill it up for you there and then. Our chef was a lovely guy named Tomi. There were two big u-shaped ‘bars’ plus a bunch of booths off to the sides. We actually sat at one of the bars. Ayako, Kerry, Rob, and I spent a couple of hours there drinking beer, eating chicken, mushrooms, scallops, onions, asparagus, and I can’t even remember what else.

I’m not entirely positive how the idea came around, but we had all made comments about how Tomi was such a nice & friendly guy. Kerry had been a few weeks before and I think Tomi made a comment about how Kerry was so nice too. One thing led to another and before you knew it someone had handed me a marker and I gave Kerry & Tomi matching heart ‘tattoos’. We also added little engagement rings a bit later… :-P Ayako and a waiter also got matching flowers on the backs of their hands. Needless to say, Japanese beer is good stuff.

Aaaaahhhh. So it’s taken me all of four months to decide. but japan is a strange place indeed. From the TV shows to the general everyday lives I just don’t get it. It sure is amusing though!!! Here’s the address of a clip from a popular TV show.
Click IT!!!!!! and although I haven’t seen this actual clip I have seen this show quite a few times…. All of which are nearly as enlightening.

The general rule of thumb is to keep your head down and accept whatever cards are dealt. If you find yourself in a bad situation you’re pretty much expected to deal with it in whatever way you can and to do your best not to make any waves. I suppose that that can be an admirable quality when you’re living in such a restricted society, but I just don’t get it. With so much to rebel against people still somehow manage to rebel in a very uniform way. There’s hardly any unique forms of rebellion. It’s a strange place…….