thank the golden arches

I never thought I would ever be thankful for mickey d’s, but after a coupe of days of the Japanese and mostly raw seafood to eat you would probably feel the same.  I eat raw cherry stones and oysters from time to time, but that is when I really feel like eating it.  They are usually dug that morning and still taste like the sea they were just in.  I wasn’t forced to eat it but I wanted to be polite, and to at least try it.  The best meal I had while I was in Kyoto was at an Indian restaurant, roghan josh…ummmm tasty.

To a westerner Japanese culture can seem a bit nutty, because it is.  They actually have heated toilet seats, which I will not complain about.  They have an ultramodern country but still treat women like dirt.  All the women that work in the office at the headquarters of my company have to wear a uniform.  Or at least the same outfit.  They wear a charcoal grey wrap skirt, a grey vest, a black top, and either black hose or knee socks.  All the women were in their early twenties, because they are expected to only work long enough to find a husband and then be barefoot in the kitchen.  I wore colors other than grey while I was there and I felt like the Japanese women were wishing they could wear colors like I was.  I could see it in their eyes.

The men wear dress slacks, a shirt and tie, and the same parka made with the company colors.  Although everyone looks the same, they still have this overbearing sense of hierarchy.  The office is just a large room with long tables and the manager of the table sits at the end.  Nothing like having your boss breathing down your neck all day.  Every morning at 8:30 am they have sort of a roll call where all the people in the department gather standing along the long work tables.  The bosses stand in front of all the workers and one person per day on rotation lead the roll call.  One by one, each team leader announces all present and/or accounted for, and then the speaker gives a little speech about what he is working on for a couple of minutes.  We had to get up there on Tuesday and introduce ourselves and state what we were doing there.  Such fun.

I did manage to find a huge fabric store.  It had three floors full with every fabric you could ever want, except for their lame collection of silk fabric.  I bought only some sewing tools and scissors because I didn’t have enough room for four metres of wool.

I am still trying to shake the jetlag.  I was more or less through before I went to Japan, and then not sleeping for over twenty four hours totally did me in.  I probably won’t feel 100% again until some time into my vacation.  I am going to bed now.  Hai!  Sayonara.