Once again, sorry for not getting more timely updates out to you all...

Konban wa once again.... it is about 845 pm on my last Monday night in Japan (at least for this trip - she says with a glimmer of hope) and I am finally getting around to filling everyone in on what has been going on here.

First I will get the complaining out of the way -- my ankle is KILLING me and all the walking that I have been doing, regardless of which shoes I wear is NOT helping!  But the good news is, it is NOT stopping me, just slowing me down a bit.  

OK enough complaining... on to the fun stuff.

Our weekday routine is pretty set... Karen and I usually meet for breakfast at the little cafe restaurant - La Herbette - in the hotel around 745.  They give us the menu and we continue to look at it even though it doesn't change from day to day.  They have a buffet that I must say is quite interesting.  It has everything from cereal and rice porridge (quite good, I must say) to pasta salad to vegetables (cooked & raw) to eggs (extremely yellow yolks!) and everything in between.  And they also have a "regular" menu with things like eggs (very soft if scrambled) and bacon/sausage/ham as well as waffles and French toast (this takes 20 minutes to make though it seems like just regular French toast to me, ok may be soaked a little longer in the egg but... really 20 minutes!).

Okay.... I didn't finish this on Monday night so I am going to finish this post now on Tuesday afternoon. So, Konnichi wa.

After breakfast, Karen and I head to the office but first we meet up with Michelle - a co-worker from the UK - for coffee.  Depending on which building we are working in decides whether we go to Pronto (like in the picture here) or Doutor.  I have been drinking lattes rather than my normal black coffees and have been totally enjoying them.  Of course, when I get back home I will have to switch back to regular black coffee since I am sure I will NOT be doing anywhere near the walking I am doing over here.  It isn't that we go there too often but when they see one of us they move a 3rd chair over for us!

We switch back and forth for lunch.... sometimes more traditional lunches like udon noodles, tempura something and a riceball with salmon and yes that is a coke.  Also have done McDonalds but I got what they call a "teritama" which is a burger with teriyake sauce and an egg on top in a bun.  Quite messy but quite good and different!  And have also done Subway sandwiches.   I feel very international in my diet lately!

Karen and I also did dinner at another traditional restaurant where we sat on the floor and had Soba noodles (buckwheat).

The noodles are served cold and the other bowl had some sort of egg and yam broth in it that as the waiter told me -- via a little English and a lot of sign language -- I was to mix up the broth and then dip the noodles into it. It was pretty good although I am not sure I would want to eat a lot of the noodles (and not even because they would make my fingers smell --- yes another anime reference!)  

On Friday night we went to a restaurant called Gonpachi that is down a long hall that makes you want to think you are walking through caves to get there.  It serves a bit of everything... from Kobe beef to sushi and pretty much everything in between!  And if you would believe it they have the BEST Caesar salad I have ever tasted.  Must say though, seems a bit odd to eat salad with chopsticks but I did it. Oh yeah, our waiter was from Israel!

On two other occasions, we ate at Gonpachi's "sister" restaurant called Zest Cantina -- yep a Mexican place in Tokyo.... but wait it gets better.  Sunny, the manager (I think he is anyway), is from Nigeria and they have French and Spanish waiters as well as Japanese!   Again the food is very good and we found out from Sunny that the restaurants are a worldwide chain. 

So that is some of the stuff we did during our first work week.... Seems all I talk about is food, eh... Oh well... weekend stuff to follow soon....

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