Nani

By now, my travelmates have gotten you all caught up on our adventures for the last couple of days, so there's no need for me to provide an overarching narrative. I just thought I'd share a few more pictures and some personal details since my last post. You know, to fill space. And feel validated. Oh, how I crave your comments.

Shabu shabu did, as Ed mentioned, turn out to be a big hit. When we got there, I was worried the opposite would happen, frankly. The reason I picked this place for us, after all, was that the online guide explicitly promised "English Speaking Staff Available." This was a complete and total fabrication. Nobody there spoke English. Maybe the guide was trying to tell us something else. Perhaps, someplace within the restaurant, an ancient quarterstaff was hung upon the wall, with English inscribed down its length. I'm sure the inscribed phrase is "You stupid gaijin, you're so screwed."

But, once more, the combined Japanese skills of Courtland and myself saw us through what was actually a terrific evening. Upon entering, we surrendered our shoes, and managed to order 4 servings of all-you-can-eat, and, as promised, all-you-can-drink. The beer and sake flowed freely during our meal, and it was an excellent accompaniment to the delicious meal.



Courtland's choice of shirt here does make him look particularly fiendish, doesn't it? I managed to capture this moment in the ancient, arcane ritual of beef-summoning. Later, Courtland would insert David's severed pinky into the pot, thus both conjuring forth a feast and affirming David's position as a yakuza. The ground sesame added a nice flavor to both.



Ed is discovering here that the noodles are, by far, the trickiest thing to extract from the water. This includes the constantly-breaking-up blocks of tofu in there. Those noodles are fucking elusive. Based on the elusive-to-delicious ratio of the foods in this pot, I want to conduct experiments with cupfuls of compressed air. I bet it tastes spectacular.



The aftermath of an evening well spent! Total casualties: 10 beers, 3 mini-bottles of sake, 3 plates of veggies, 2 jars of noodles, 9 platters of beef, and David's finger.



We did not buy these hats. We were high on shabu. I blame the drinks. Shut up.



The beer followed us, the next day, on the train ride to Toyama. I just wanted to get a shot of the countryside-ish areas we were traveling through, but some thoughtful passenger left us his empties. Not pictured: Three more cans in the seat pocket in front of me. Seriously.



Here is Toyama! Courtland was nice enough to maintain this exact pose while some total stranger walked up next to him.



I kid. Saiko-san was extremely nice and pleasant; I truly enjoyed meeting her. She was very polite and reserved, despite the fact that we are obviously very obnoxious and pungent. She helped us to enjoy Toyama and order various foods and services, and also was an eager conversationalist.



Sorry, but our princess was in another castle.



Sorry, but our princess is not in any train station at all.



It's raining again today. I hope to combat this rainy day with a hot bowl of Udon. With luck, we'll make it to Kyoto tomorrow instead.

Bye!