Toshi

I had dinner tonight with Toshi. After work he took me to Ginza which is a very ritzy shopping center. It is about a 15 minute walk to this area from the office. I haven't figured him out yet. He has many similarities to my Grandpa Amstutz which makes me feel comfortable and very fond of him but all from a distance. If that even makes sense. We went into several stores, stores that I would never afford to buy anything. We went into Louis Vuitton, Cartier those are the only two I remember. When we went into the stores he would go one way I would go the other, we would browse the merchandise but I had to keep an eye on where he went or I feared he would be gone. I had flash backs of when my Grandpa left a bunch of us grand kids at church. Being left at church is much different than being stranded in Tokyo. We could call for help. It was clear that he was doing it to entertain me rather than himself. As we were walking down the street we past a bridal shop and we got to talk about his daughter who is getting married in April and her and his wife have been shopping for a dress. She found one, of course I asked, for those who are wondering. I get my inquisitiveness from my mom too.

We went to dinner at this place that reminded me of an Irish PUB. OK, I have never been to Ireland but I imagine this is what the are like. ha. This place had pizza, which is why he brought me here, very thoughtful. As I was taught last night at dinner the drinks are ordered first. In a pub it seemed fitting for a beer. (mom and dad skip ahead if you are having spring break flash backs, please) Toshi gave me the same look that my dad gave me when I told him I drank beer on spring break instead of wine coolers. I can joke now about this situation because 1. it was over 10 years ago 2. I am on the other side of the planet and 3. I am currently over 21 . We order a Margherita Pizza, a Ham appetizer, later some roast beef. The ham was frozen and looked more like shaved raw meat than ham. It tasted like ham. The pizza was good, but drenched in olive oil... Never saw that before. That isn't how Maggie serves us the Margherita Pizzas?!?!? I really thought I would come to Tokyo and lose weight, but I don't know... the Roast beef was delicious too very tender. Dinner conversation was about work things, and what 5 Japanese things I need to learn before I go home. Tonight I learned, ( I am going to botch the spelling so I will just type how you should say it) See-ma-say. Which is a combination of excuse me or sorry. You use that to get a servers attention, or if you bump into someone. After we leave the restaurant, Toshi says to me, " I sink it get cold now, I sink you should ride taxi home to hotel." So he puts me in a taxi, tells the driver where I need to go, and hands me 1000 Yen. Off I go back to the hotel in a taxi that has lace covers on the seats. The drive I debated seat belt or no, seat belt or no? This driver is like typical taxi driver who drives fast, breaks hard, follows closely, runs red lights. I guess, I don't know why I expected it to be different in Tokyo than in Chicago? I made it safe to the hotel with 20 yen to spare.


Link to restuaraunt http://www.sapporoholdings.jp/english/company/lion/