(no subject)
Gau top 8'd the GP. Magic continued to go terribly for me.
We went out for dinner and I used restaurant pointing guide to say "no beef, pork, chicken, fish, or shellfish, yes, vegetables, milk, egg, mushroom" and then told the waiter to bring me whatever he wanted for 1000 yen ($11) He brought me a bowl of udon noodles with weird shriveled thin things on them, like onion skin or rice paper or something. I moved my chopsticks in to pick up a bite and saw something move and pulled my chopsticks back in shock. I looked at my bowl and noticed that the things were all wiggling slowly. I sat and stared and waited for them to slow down, figuring that maybe it was an effect like sizzling from a heat transfer. That wasn't happening, they just kept shifting slowly. I complained that as a vegetarian, I've never had to deal with the possibility that my food would be moving under its own power, and I had no idea what was going on. I tried to get a waiter's attention and kept watching. At some point a hunk wiggled enough to knock itself down. Eventually I just gave up and decided to put a piece in my mouth. It didn't really chew. It felt kind of like trying to eat melted plastic, and I took it out of my mouth and set it aside, determined to ask a waiter about it.
We got the waiter in and took out a book with pictures of common Japanese foods and asked him to point to what it was made of. It took him a long time to find something like it (the restaurant was basically empty and the waiter was very patient and helpful, considering he spoke almost no english). It turns out I had been served noodles with flakes of fish (specifically bonito) skin. So much for no fish. I took out my piece of paper again, pointed to fish, and said no. He took it back and brought me something else. The explanation of what the thing was made it sound possible that the word for skin, or fish skin or something might sound like "no", which may have contributed to the confusion, I'm not entirely clear on that part.
Tomorrow I train back to Tokyo and fly to Chicago. I'll be in Chicago from 6:25 until Tuesday around noon. I'll be in Huston before that. Lex, what's your schedule like tomorrow? When should I try to call you? I think I get to Huston around 2.
We went out for dinner and I used restaurant pointing guide to say "no beef, pork, chicken, fish, or shellfish, yes, vegetables, milk, egg, mushroom" and then told the waiter to bring me whatever he wanted for 1000 yen ($11) He brought me a bowl of udon noodles with weird shriveled thin things on them, like onion skin or rice paper or something. I moved my chopsticks in to pick up a bite and saw something move and pulled my chopsticks back in shock. I looked at my bowl and noticed that the things were all wiggling slowly. I sat and stared and waited for them to slow down, figuring that maybe it was an effect like sizzling from a heat transfer. That wasn't happening, they just kept shifting slowly. I complained that as a vegetarian, I've never had to deal with the possibility that my food would be moving under its own power, and I had no idea what was going on. I tried to get a waiter's attention and kept watching. At some point a hunk wiggled enough to knock itself down. Eventually I just gave up and decided to put a piece in my mouth. It didn't really chew. It felt kind of like trying to eat melted plastic, and I took it out of my mouth and set it aside, determined to ask a waiter about it.
We got the waiter in and took out a book with pictures of common Japanese foods and asked him to point to what it was made of. It took him a long time to find something like it (the restaurant was basically empty and the waiter was very patient and helpful, considering he spoke almost no english). It turns out I had been served noodles with flakes of fish (specifically bonito) skin. So much for no fish. I took out my piece of paper again, pointed to fish, and said no. He took it back and brought me something else. The explanation of what the thing was made it sound possible that the word for skin, or fish skin or something might sound like "no", which may have contributed to the confusion, I'm not entirely clear on that part.
Tomorrow I train back to Tokyo and fly to Chicago. I'll be in Chicago from 6:25 until Tuesday around noon. I'll be in Huston before that. Lex, what's your schedule like tomorrow? When should I try to call you? I think I get to Huston around 2.