Nine Days

Only 9 more days until Shawn arrives in Japan. I am looking forward to having him here and have found myself thinking of all of the fun places that I will show him when he gets here, and all of the other places that I have wanted to go to but haven't yet. Life in a place like this is will be much more fun with someone to share my experiences with.

My host researcher gave me a gift a few weeks ago that I will bring out of wraps once Shawn arrives. He gave me “his and her's” chopsticks for us. They use matched pairs of chopsticks for married couples (I have told everyone here that we are married, this is the easiest way of explaining who Shawn is to people for now) here. The woman's set is slightly shorter than the man's set. I thought that was a thoughtful gift and a nice way to share a bit of Japanese culture with me.

I went out for kaiten sushi last night for my first time. Kaiten sushi is “revolving” sushi – the kind of restaurant where the plates of sushi move around on a conveyor belt and you grab whatever kind of fish you want and then pay for your empty plates at the end. I tried raw squid for the first time, but the rest of the sushi was stuff I have tried before. Raw squid is not too bad, but the Brazillians who I was dining with didn't approve of eating such things. It was a good meal, and cheap (kaiten sushi is generally cheaper and not quite as nice sushi). Sapporo is a place that is known for having good kaiten sushi places; I have been warned that kaiten sushi in other cities aren't the kind of place that you want to go for a meal if it can be avoided.

I failed yet another Japanese language lesson today – this being in classes with language majors is damaging to the ego! I am getting down to some microscope work later today and maybe the gym (a friend is going to show me where he has been going, he says that the pool is nice) so that should wash away some stress.