It's been a couple weeks now, but Minna came to visit me in Japan and it was GREAT! She spent her first week in Tokyo working, but spent her Saturday exploring while I was at work. I don't know how she did it, but she managed to go to every Tokyo tourist hot-spot in one day and still find her way to Shizuoka before 9pm. Go Minna. I don't think I could have done that and I speak some Japanese.
Since it was the weekend before Halloween, we met some of my new-found friends down at a club. I was dressed as Minnie Mouse and Minna was...dressed. Many men were dressed as women, but coming from San Francisco, the shock value of those costumes to us is low. The drinks were weak, but it was all you could drink AND you don't tip! The music was mostly American pop from 5 or so years ago and all the foreigners there covered the dance floor until they turned on techno and the dance floor cleared out.
The next afternoon, we left the house in hopes to find this sushi place I heard of in my city--it's the same one I went to in Fuji with the bullet train that brings you your special order...super cute! Thanks to Google maps, we found it. I've noticed that there are no street names to be found and so following directions is now based on following building shapes. That's fun. We made it and enjoyed our meal of delicious sushi. We walked around downtown Shizuoka and ended up at some Izakaya place for some beer and strange food. We had some form of fish and chips and I don't even remember what else. We ended the night at a small bar called Red Wine and Whiskey with the owner and a man, who openly admitted he's a drunkard. We talked about San Francisco and drank some average tasting wine. Great times.
I wanted to take Minna to a really neat place I found online called Panorama Park, maybe get a glimpse of Mt. Fuji since I had yet to do that (I recently spotted it from a train). It was going to take almost 2 hours to get there on like 4 different modes of transportation, but I really wanted to go. It wasn't until the last train station that someone finally told us that the park is closed. We were stuck in Izu which is the little peninsula just east of Shizuoka across the Suruga Bay. I'm sure these places mean nothing to you. The nice guy at the ticket counter gave us some information about sightseeing in Izu so we set off on our own little adventure. It wasn't what I had in mind for the day, but we came across some cool things; temples, bridges, and bamboo.
We also found a cute little sushi restaurant near my house. For 1600¥ we got I don't even know how many pieces of high-quality fish and a new friend. His name is Anma (Ah-n-mah). He was trying so ridiculously hard to speak English and I was trying just as hard to speak Japanese. There was some miscommunication about Minna's occupation. He couldn't figure out what Google was when said in English, but when pronounced in a Japanese accent (Goo-goo-ru), he was so impressed and told everyone in the restaurant. We also met someone else who owned an apple orchard and they even gave us some delicious apples. That was nice. Anma and I made a promise that I will go there to eat sushi by myself and I will teach him English and he will teach me Japanese. I should go back soon.
I am sooo happy that Minna was able to come visit. She's moving to New York in January, which means she won't be in California when I return in July. It breaks my heart and I'm not going to lie, I did cry a little when she left, but I'm happy for her. Now I have an excuse to go to New York again! Thanks for coming to Japan, Minna!! I hope you had a great time!! Now, I have my parents' trip to look forward to!
Until next time! またね!
******************************************************
Ne
w Vocabulary:
~私の親友が日本に来た wah-tah-she no she-n-you gah ni-hon ni ki-tah. My best friend came to Japan
~居酒屋 ee-zah-kai-yah tavern
~酔っぱらい yo-pah-rah-ee drunkard
~リンゴ rin-go apple
