On My Birthday/ Trip to Tokyo.

So, Sunday was my birthday, as all of my real friends already knew. I had to work, but afterwards, we went out to dinner with some of the other teachers. There's a type of restaurant here in Japan, that is apparently pretty popular, as there are a lot of them, but I can't quite figure out what they're called. So you go with some friends, and they give you a room or table. There are no entres per se, and all the portions are kind of small, so everybody just orders a ton of stuff and you pass it around.

Some of the things that got passed around: tuna sashimi (that's just plain raw tuna, a little different from sushi, which has rice and other things); octopus in an egg dumpling (a sort of mini-octopus omelette); gyosa, which are kind of like tiny egg rolls, but less crispy; and many others. The winner for strangest dish of the night was raw octopus with wasabi. It was pretty disgusting. I've decided I don't like octopus, but I felt I had to try it. (By the way, if you're already grossed out, you might just want to skip to the next paragraph.) So they're about nickle sized, and in a bowl, and they could honestly pass for eyeballs. But not human eyes, they're too small. You grab one with your chopsticks, which is a feat in itself, as they're all slimy, toss it back and start chewing. Well, octopus is really chewy, so you can't really bite through it, but then there's this hard crunchy thing in the middle. So as you're chewing, the wasabi starts to burn your mouth and sinuses, but you feel you have to continue chewing because you haven't yet gotten to the crunchy bit in the middle. In the end, you just have to swollow it, having not really chewed it to a satisfactory pulp, and not being granted the satisfaction of knowing why this country loves octopus so much.

Sashimi on the other hand is sensational. You can get all kinds of sashimi, but tuna is possibly the best. It's dark red, almost purple, and oh so tender.

Monday, after a good morning of rest, I went down to Tokyo to meet Lorene and Randy. I rode the Shink (Shinkansen, or the bullet train) down for about 70 bucks each way. it takes about 75 minutes to get to Tokyo station. I get off the train, go down and greet Lorene and Randy. It's then that I realize that my digital camera has slipped out of my pocket on the train. So, thank the Lord, Lorene knew enough Japanese to get us back up to the platform and talking to an official who could help us find it. Lucky for us, Tokyo station is the last stop and Japanese people don't have a habit of stealing things like that. So they guy tells us he'll know if they have the camera in about an hour. We give him Lorene's number and head out to Tokyo tower.

Tokyo tower is kind of like the Eiffel Tower, but it's red and white and looks more like a radio antena. Pretty sweet though. You can go up to the middle deck and then up to the top and get some pretty incredible views of Tokyo. On a clear day (not this Monday) you can see Fuji.

By this time, we'd heard that they had my camera, so we went back to Tokyo station to pick it up, then headed over to Sensoji Temple. I wish I knew some facts to tell you about Sensoji, but for now know that it comes highly recomended by guide books and Nova students alike, as being a very beautiful place to witness Japan's Buddhist heritage. If that's not enough, apparently the temple is visited every year by many foreigners and Japanese.

From Sensoji, we went in search of English books. Lorene knew of a huge bookstore that had an entire floor devoted to English books, so we headed towards Shinjuku, which is maybe the largest train station in Tokyo. I don't know which one is larger, that one or Tokyo, but both of them are pretty huge. While we were in Tokyo station, Lorene made a comment, "it's crazy that there are probably more people in this station than in all of Tuscaloosa." Believe it, people. Believe it. Shinjuku was a mess. Imagine the largest mall or outdoor concert/sporting event you've ever been to and you have a picture of an average ten minute span in this place. It's absolute madness. But beautiful all at once. Seriously, it was incredibly busy, but something tells me I might really like to be living there. I'm crazy, I know.

Anyway, to wrap up the story, we got to the store at 8:05 and it closed at 8. So we went back to Tokyo station to catch the last train back to Koriyama. While it may seem that the whole day was a fruitless effort of trains, walking, and dodging people, nothing could be farther from the truth. I freaking love Tokyo. I think it may be my home away from home, and who knows, with time it may even pass London as "favorite city on the globe."

Pictures coming soon...