Surprise Tennis

Yesterday for lunch we had kaitenzushi (conveyer belt sushi place, although we ordered most of it a la carte.) Can you IMAGINE getting a pair of nigiri for a dollar? They didn't all cost a dollar, most were 3ish, but that is still way cheaper than it tends to go for in San Francisco. The salmon was particularly delicious, but I also sampled hamachi, scallop, tuna, shrimp, and a maki with what seemed like maybe little bits of beef or pork or something in it. Hot water on tap at our table made for easy refills of green tea.

Then we spent a while at Tsutaya, a book, cd, dvd, game (and apparently rental) chain. We spent a while deciding what movies to rent, poked around the magazine aisles, and I got a kanji chart to put up when I get home. I'm really bummed cuz lots of my posters got trashed in the move to my new apt. The chart I got has all the sixth grade kanji on it, so it's good motivation--someday I'll finish elementary school ;D

The best part of yesterday was definitely playing tennis. There is a sports arena place in town with two indoor courts, so we met up with some Japanese people Three and Melissa know. One of them lent me a racket and we played for like an hour and a half. The balls were a little flat and the courts were sort of springy--better for jogging on than tennis, I think, BUT I felt really worked out by the end of it and had a lot of fun playing. Felt much less rusty than I had last time. Can't wait to play more when I get home!!

For dinner we got pizza and stuff to stick on top. Fresh veggies and some ham. Really tasty! Then we blended together bananas, frozen blueberries and raspberries, vanilla and pineapple ice cream, and a little bit of orange juice to make super delicious fruit shakes. Stayed up late watching one of the movies we rented, The Number 23, with Jim Carrey. I had never even heard of it before. Where have I been? ;D Anyhow, a decent thriller, I guess. I like Jim Carrey's (good) serious stuff better than his wacky days.

After that reason prescribed bedtime, but I still hadn't written up my last article from the press conference, so I punked around doing that till about 4 am. Took a bit longer not only because I was pulling quotes from my recording of the interview, but also because I kept nodding off and writing gibberish, as tends to happen when I work when I'm overtired. Requires careful self-editing before sending it off.

As expected the whole lot of us slept in pretty well. Easy time in the morning. Had a cup of "the 2nd best miso in Japan" (I guess it won a contest or something?) with tofu and some leftover fried rice for brunch. The miso was pretty excellent, but I"m not enough of a connoisseur to know exactly why or what made it that way. The only part I didn't like was that it was sort of dreggy on the bottom--not something I am used to. The taste was really too severe to finish it off. Not sure if that was a quality of the way it was cooked or the tofu we added or what.

Other than that just have been playing video games and reading. Later on we are taking a short trip (about an hour?) to some other town to be treated to sushi by one of Three and Melissa's Japanese acquaintances. Apparently he likes to go hiking and fell off a cliff not too long ago? I think that's the guy I'm meeting, Watanabe-san.