More Drizzly
I was a little lazy on my last post and didn’t write as much as I could have, so as it is 1am and I am still full of energy, I may as well update it.
In addition to its being full of amazing food and other stores of things we can’t afford, I should have mentioned that Roppongi Midtown has a pretty Japanese garden and pond, complete with viewing and resting areas. It is always difficult to believe we are still in the middle of one of the world’s biggest cities when we visit these inner-city gardens.
There was also an exhibition of Nissan Skylines, from the earliest models to the latest - a nice surprise for Patrick to reward him for agreeing to be dragged about on city walks each weekend.
We went for some Fooding* with Michael this evening, and were herded out of our usual two or so restaurants before finally giving up and going home. I always imagined that everything in Tokyo would be open until the early hours of the morning, especially in the younger, trendier areas. In fact, because the trains finish quite early, it is rare to find anywhere to eat or have coffee past 10 or 11pm.
A little annoying really, especially when we live on a schedule that has us finishing work after 9pm.
Patrick has started his Japanese classes this week, and seems to be enjoying them. They are very difficult as he began in the middle of the course and all the other students seem to have quite a handle on what is happening. The teacher only speaks Japanese, so Patrick spends a fair chunk of the time having no idea what she is talking about. I am hoping one day it will all just fall into place and he will be suddenly enlightened…
We study together in the evenings so are getting the best value out of his classes as possible, and there is one waitress at a restaurant we frequent often who doesn’t seem to mind when we practice our new phrases on her. I have a feeling the boys at our local video store would be happy to hear us try a few phrases as well, as they always very carefully say; “one thousand, next Tuesday, thank-you!” each time we rent a DVD. I always appreciate their efforts greatly.
Jason has also been helpful with giving Patrick hints on how to remember certain phrases. He pointed out the the Japanese for “You’re welcome” (Doitashimashite) sounds a lot like “Don’t touch my moustache” said very quickly.
Patrick didn’t know what a ‘moustache’ was, so we told him it is like the top half of a beard. Now when he wants to say “you’re welcome”, he yells “don’t touch my beard!” Not quite the same effect, but much more interesting.
* A restaurant we passed in Shibuya a few weeks ago advertised its “Modern Tokyo Fooding” or something of the sort, so we have now added the very flexible term ‘fooding’ to our vocabularies.
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