Turning Japanese?
After my rather confusing start in Japan, it was up in the morning to go find some internet access and a cup of coffee. The weather ended up being absolutely fantastic with sunshine and temperatures in the mid-20's (centigrade that is). After finding some overprice net access at Kinko's I grabbed a quick train to visit the National Museum. There I browsed through a number of exhibitions including some 12,000+ years of artifacts, from Japan, India, China, Egypt, Afghanistan, Pakistan and more. A very good museum and well worth the trip. After that it was back to the hotel where I met up with my former co-worker Julio for dinner and a drink and had my first okonomiyaki (a japanese "pancake"). The next day I headed down
to Julio's office to meet up with him and another former coworker, Brian, for lunch, then headed to the Sony Building to check out all the gadgets and the new BMW 6series convertible, then afterwards it was a late dinner with Julio and Brian for some more strange food (and some not so strange). The next day I went and explored the Imperial Palace and explored it's East Garden before heading to see the Meiji-Jingu shrine before heading to dinner with Julio, his girlfriend, Brian, and another x-IONA guy Mike for yet more intteresting food. So far (I know some of you won't believe some of this) I have had such "commonplace" foods as chicken livers, chicken hearts, raw tuna, and raw chicken. I still prefer more exotic stuff like rice, cooked meats etc. but it has been interesting and not all bad (often the taste fine, but the texture not anything I am used to).
The next day it was time to get things in order to head on from Tokyo.
to Julio's office to meet up with him and another former coworker, Brian, for lunch, then headed to the Sony Building to check out all the gadgets and the new BMW 6series convertible, then afterwards it was a late dinner with Julio and Brian for some more strange food (and some not so strange). The next day I went and explored the Imperial Palace and explored it's East Garden before heading to see the Meiji-Jingu shrine before heading to dinner with Julio, his girlfriend, Brian, and another x-IONA guy Mike for yet more intteresting food. So far (I know some of you won't believe some of this) I have had such "commonplace" foods as chicken livers, chicken hearts, raw tuna, and raw chicken. I still prefer more exotic stuff like rice, cooked meats etc. but it has been interesting and not all bad (often the taste fine, but the texture not anything I am used to).
The next day it was time to get things in order to head on from Tokyo.