So, at the beginning of this blog, I had showered praises over the creation of the heated toilet seat. Or at least meant to, since it was usually so cold I couldn't sleep at night without my teeth chattering, it seemed a major blessing. Not so anymore. Waking up sweating is one of the least fun things to do, but worse is sitting down on an even hotter toilet seat. It's like torture. And there's no way to turn it off. (・ロ・）
Had curry again today. It seems to be becoming tradition. Unfortunate we only have three more saturdays for this tradition left. Oh well. Was delicious. I got to try a new flavor, a shrimp masala. I wanna eat curry every week, forever.
Went with Tamarra on a whirlwind of adventure today. First was to the costume museum in shinjuku. Rather than costumes, it's more a clothing museum, I don't know why they call it costume. Usually they have a variety of western and eastern clothing. But today was special, and they had african clothing only. I'll admit, I was a little disappointed. I've been wanting to see a real, period bustle dress up close for a long time, and they normally have one on display. Not today. Still, the african ones were interesting. There was one that was made with human hair. Creepy, but also really kinda cool.
After the costume museum, we headed over to the Square Enix store once more, getting some final souvenirs for family back home. Tama-chan bought so many moogles. It was shocking. I got a little souvenir, too. Not gonna say what, or for who, 'cause they might read this blog.
After SE store, we wandered and got a little lost. Mainly because we were trying to find a different museum, using a tiny map. Found it eventually, after following some misleading signs. The Japanese Sword museum. Very cool. They had this huge hunk of raw iron outside, something that they develop over time, firing again and again to be able to harvest iron from it. The making of Katana in Japan is considered a national art form / national treasure kind of thing, and masters of the craft are actually subsidized by the government. The museum inside was cool, if a little difficult to understand. So far most of the museums we've visited, we've had the same problem. Very basic descriptions of pieces are in english, and the rest of the detailed plaques are in Japanese. So I either spend very little time looking at each piece, or would have to spend more than 20min for each one, trying to decipher what the plaque is supposed to say. It's a little frustrating. I think it would be a cool idea if the museums worked together with the universities, and had students do translating as assignments for classes. That way, museum gets work done, and either Japanese students or English students can get some hands-on translating practice. Good for language on both sides, yeah? And Museum gets free or cheap labor.
Anyway, that was finished almost too quickly for my liking. Next we headed over to Ike for some anime time. I had been hoping to hit a cat cafe, but by then it was running a little late in the day. We headed over to the Animate, a big chain store that hocks anime, manga, and some gaming goods. Got a few more souvenirs. Horay. And a little something for myself. It was fun. But my feet started protesting. Sit down and dinner time. Fortunately, right across from the Animate was an El Torito. I have been craving mexican something fierce here, and there it was, glorious. We have an El Torito back home that we visit now and then. This was different, but the same in many ways. Some foods were very Japan-ized. Others were the same. Had delicious fajitas, and chips and salsa for the first time in what feels like ages. And a real, honest-to-goodness margarita. Well, a Kiwi flavor one. Tama-chan had a normal flavor. The kiwi tasted almost like watermelon. I dunno. It was delicious. Felt like home.
Tama-chan and I have this game where we point out interesting-looking people nearby. Sometimes it's funny, like the guy in Harajuku whose hair was the same color as his horrid neon-pink striped pants. Other times it's kinda sad, like the very obviously-anorexic woman today, who was so skinny her skin was sucking up under her jawline. My favorite today though, who Tama-chan didn't actually get to see, was this guy who had probably done his own weave. Poorly. And had taking the term rather literally. He'd taken chunks of long blond hair and tied it, with yarn, to his own dark hair. It was… dreadful. One thing Tama-chan's said is that the Japanese have a wonderful eye for seeing beauty in simplicity and so are good a finding beauty in very little. Unfortunately, the have no eye for terrible, and are unaware when they fall victim to ugly. It's really, very true. Poor Japanese.
Had a mainly quiet night at home. It's nice to just sit with the fam and watch tv. Laugh together. We're supposed to write a speech for the kind-of farewell party we're having next week. Not really farewell, since we're sticking around for another two weeks, but yeah… I think I might write about tonight, just laughing so easily with them…
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