TimesToCome

The Sumo Tournament was 5 hours long!

One on one, winner stays till the next round it went. At the end a young wrestler upset the reigning champ. And pillows all flew to the stage from the box seats. We thought they were unhappy, but they throw the cushions at the stage when they are very pleased.

I have no idea what I had for lunch, we’re still getting by by pointing at menu photos. Dinner was in a Chinese restaurant – nothing like the Chinese stateside. I’ve no idea what that was either but it was great.

No one speaks a word of English outside Toyko, and fewer people do in the city than you’d think.

I’m told these restaurants are common here. A conveyor belt runs by each table and you take off the plates of sushi that you want.

There is a touch pad at the table for special orders. Special orders come out in red bowls and your screen flashes when it reaches your table.

After dinner you slide the plates down a slot in the table. Every fifth plate you have a chance at a prize. On your touch screen a cartoon fishes for something other ‘n a boot.

We’re out in the burbs and the cousin took us shopping. Lucky Honda is like a Super Walmart plus Lowes plus a huge craft store, all put together then doubled.

The grocery section had an amazing fish selection. The dry goods section had everything you could ever need except clothing.

Quiet day today, too cold and too windy to walk to far. We’re off in the burbs at the Airbase till Monday morning.

We had a snack at the Japanese equivalent of Friendlies this morning. On the tables in all the restaurants is a buzzer. The waitress leaves you alone unless you press the buzzer.

Along the path through the park behind the hotel we ran across a middle aged guy repeatedly sliding his hands along the bark of an oak. I’m told he was toughening up his hands for a martial arts thing. Though I’m not sure that makes him any less crazy.

Around the Detached Palace are joggers, it’s a steep, hilly 5k run around the palace.

This afternoon we tried lunch, we had to point at the photos, they didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak Japanese, but the food was great.

We wandered over to the gadget district, the signs and buildings were fascinating, the gadgets not so much. Every where there are young men hawking like carnies and young girls barely dressed handing out flyers for various stores.

Later we found our way over to the ‘Times Square’ like area of the city, lots of lights and flashing signs everywhere.

Our blue jeans and sneakers give us away as American more than the cameras. The men are all in black suits, the women in black skirts. The young girls skirts are higher than the tops of their stockings. The young men all have their hair teased. The construction workers all wear pants that billow out like bell bottoms but much more so, I don’t know how they don’t get tangled up in them.

The subway’s painless, no different than taking it in Boston and not crowded at all, we had seats every trip. At each train station is an underground mall with restaurants and stores. It’s much like the tunnels in Houston but with many more people and shops.

So far we’ve been lucky and all the menus have had photos we could point to, the average person here doesn’t speak English.

It’s a very large city yet we’ve seen extremely few people who are not Japanese, less than 6 of the thousands of people we crossed paths were were not Japanese.

I know why everyone wears surgical masks – people here don’t cover their mouths when they cough.

No one, not a single person carries a backpack. You see brief cases and brief cases on wheels like airport luggage.