Today I spent most of the morning kicking around the house doing housework. I’ve noticed that housework has become a consistent theme for me – Antoine called and he was giving me a hard time for doing so much housework. He said that he walks on a pile of dirty clothes wherever he goes. Antoine is the guy that doesn’t cook – he eats out every meal. I figured he probably burned his clothes when he was done with them, but apparently he does laundry.
Around four o’clock Miss Kageyama dropped by to pick me and see The Last Samurai. It just came out here in Japan, and it’s been getting good reviews. Initially we were going to see an early show, but it was sold out, so we ended up sticking around and then going later. To kill time we went to the arcade and played strange games based on capturing candy. We played air hockey, but the Japanese version lets you play for a while and then drops more and more pucks into the action while you are playing. I was pretty surprised when that happened, it got pretty frantic for a while.
We still had seats right near the screen – and during the action sequences it was sometimes hard to keep track of what was going on. The movie was pretty good though – and I could already see that I was taking some things in Japan for granted. What might have had some crowds oohh-ing and ahh-ing had me going, “That looks like Himeji!” or “I want to go there next month!”.
I won’t give anything away about the movie – but at one point Tom Cruise’s character begins to learn Japanese, and he had it nailed in a couple of days. I told Miss Kageyama that I wish I had his language skills. It was piecemeal Japanese, and I found that I could understand it without having to read the subtitles. Now I can communicate in Japanese with small children and Tom Cruise – woo hoo!
After the movie we went out for a late dinner at a Chinese food place near my apartment. The food is really cheap and yet get a lot. The potstickers are excellent, and you can order them by the half-dozen, and the entrees are similar to American style Chinese food. The decor is just like a Denny’s except there are about 10 tables that are on tatami mats that you have to sit on barefoot. We took a regular table, and then they have a bar area. The service is a lot better than Denny’s, though. After a big meal Miss Kageyama dropped me off at my place and I was asleep within the hour.
