Fish Eggs

There is no greater terror in my world than a table full of pure traditional Japanese food. The sushi and its petty vegetables, the plate of miscellaneous food that I am too ignorant to identify, and the pot of fish eggs. 

Is there a food more pointless than fish eggs? Who was the first person to catch a fish and say, "Let's keep the eggs, they're delicious enough to be eaten as a seperate thing." Fish eggs are desperation food to me, or "wartime food" as someone else put it. Fish eggs would be eaten if options were low, but wouldn't be chosen over anything else.

At this hotel we also got a fish that was mostly fish eggs on the inside. If the fish is mostly fish eggs and not fish meat, don't cook it. It's not food. What if you cut open a chicken steak and the inside was mostly yolk? I am culturally sensitive.

Pachinko

The mysterious coin outside the salon apparently came from the Tsubame pachinko parlour. Politely returning the coin gave me a chance to infiltrate the establishment.

Pachinko parlours are so goddamn loud. Imagine a waterfall that isn't water, but instead of being water it's ball bearings and marbles, not water. That's the sound. The sound is everywhere, not coming just from the direction of the game machines like in an arcade. It's totally immersive, 3D sound. At the counter at the far end of the parlour there was a not unattractive girl looking half excited, half scared to be looking at me; a face to which I have become accustomed. I told her the coin was dropped outside and I'm giving it back, and she didn't hear a single word I said. I repeated variations of those facts and she didn't seem to hear any of it. I had to lean in close to her and scream, "This was dropped! Dropped! Dropped!" Eventually she said nodded, "Oh, it was dropped, thanks." 

Based on that interaction I assume that no one talks to Counter Girl when they buy their tokens. They simply indicate a desired amount and hand over money and walk off. No real communication is expected. Although that isn't really any different from the service you get in restaurants and porn shops, where everything is said with polite set phrases. Anything beyond the expected parameters of the interaction is met with confusion or repetition -  just like Siri, the robot. Not that I'm expecting waitresses to flirt with me all the time, especially not now that half the waitresses in town are my old students. I haven't seen any old students in porn shops, not in person.

It would be wrong of me to criticise pachinko as an activity considering the amount of time I've sunk into video games and stalking, also popular Japanese pastimes. It would also be wrong of me to criticise the people who frequent pachinko parlours. They may look dirty, lazy, and unsociable but I'm sure they don't play pachinko every day. They probably spend a lot of time at home too, sleeping and ignoring their unwanted kids.

Generous Woman

My friend and I stopped for curry in Tabito while riding. We only had two thousand yen between us. I asked the waitress if it was possible to get a curry with one thousand yen. At this point it may have been assumed that we only had one thousand yen between us and not one thousand yen each. Anyway a woman who was paying for her delicious curry offered me one thousand yen to cover us. I accepted it after pretending for a few seconds that I wouldn't.

After she left I clarified with the staff the total amount of money we had, which including all our change was now over three thousand yen. Two delicious curry sets were enjoyed. Kind people in Japan, it's not a myth.

Folding Paper

I asked a room of ten year old kids to fold a 4x4 inch piece of paper into 6 parts. It was a disaster. Half the students (the boys, excuse me) had no clue what to do. They folded the paper in half, and again, and in half again, and unfolded it to reveal eight parts. Then they stared blankly at their failure. The most blank, vacant, empty stare you could imagine. Then some of them folded the paper again to get 16 parts?

One girl was sitting upfront in the corner seat, and she'd already folded and cut out her six pieces while the boy next to her repeatedly folded his paper into eight parts, each time looking at it with the same bewildered dribbling face. It was the dumbest thing I have ever seen. And I've seen a room of 200 university graduates cheer the re-election of Obama.

Summer Day

I went on a nice ride and took some panoramic pictures with an iPhone app.

Four Years

I took this picture exactly four years ago from a hotel window in Tokyo on the day I came to Japan. I can remember exactly what I was thinking: "This looks exactly like the night scenes in Ghost in the Shell."

Cloudy Mountain