Hi family,
thank you for the sweet birthday wishes. doma arigato mister sister and marty. daddy, tell momma to write, too.
Everything is amazing, thought the weather is a little chilly and it rained yesterday. But we braved the elements and walked all around yesterday. Today we are kitting up the fish market and some shrines in the city.
I want to tell you things about this place before i forget them or become acclimatized. First off, you would love the toilets here. The options are boundless; heated seat or not, bidet or just a slight spray or not. You can adjust the water pressure as to just use enough water to get down what you're working with. There is also a polite rush of water that sounds as you sit down to cover up the tinkling noises which i find so cute. You even find these fancy loos in common noodles houses. Maybe we are just in a bour-gi hood.
These pissers, though, are a great metaphor for the people as a whole. Everyone and everything i so damned polite. I feel like the biggest, grossest, American asshole. I smile a lot, bow with uncertainty and cling to a few words which I mutter intermittently as to communicate I'm not deaf nor mute and that I'm thankful. Oh, the butchering of language. A trip is never complete without at least one good story in which you make a complete fool. This time it wasn't me...it was MJ. We walked in to this high end store called Miu Miu through a glass door. Well, I guess the Japanese, with their slight frames, use a lighter glass. Melissa threw open the door like a savage. I honestly thought we would see the glass shatter. To ammend the situation Melissa called out "Su mi ma sen" to excuse our (her) boisterous entrance. They all looked at us in amazement. Later that night while out to dinner, we were looking over our phrase book. Instead of apologizing for our blunder she had exclaimed "Excuse me!", as in to ask for attention.
I had my moment of embarrassment on the plane. First off, first class was insane. I didn't want to get off the plane. Anyhow, my dinner came with these delicious little shrimp. After I had finished consuming their scrumptious little bodies, I returned to tackle the meat hidden under their crustaceous armor. Well, he was a slippery little sucker and flew right my digits to the seat in back of me. I think the dude was asleep and none the wiser, but I was still mortified and turned as red as their little lobster kin. It was such a classic "Pretty Woman" move. You know, hooker Julia Roberts, meets Richard Gere...ah, forget it.
It's great being here amidst all these Japanese faces. You really get to see how many different face shapes and body sizes (though I've only seen one obese person) and eyes and noses and colors there are. Even among such a "pure" gene pool, there are so many variations.
Tidbits:
Walk ways and roads are flipped. That has been harder than you would think to get used to. I'm so used to traveling on the right, passing on the left. Smokers everywhere. You can smoke in restaurants and anywhere really. It is a weird paradox to see such a healthy and polite people be so gruesome and unapologetic about their smoking. [insert laugh at my hypocrisy here]. The bath tub is lovely and has a huge window above it with an amazing view of the city. Huge buildings as far as the eye can see. Bigger than any city I've seen. Neon and lights like I've never seen. People at the subway passing out packages of kleenex. Vending machines all over. I ate sea urchin and it was delicious.
You bored yet? Well, I'll let you go now to enjoy your day. I love you folks sooooo much.
ai shi-te i-mas
mamba
ps. dad, wow, that pink moon was amaaaaaaaaaazing. i hope someday i can wake up at the crack of dawn to see these amazing things.
