Sushi

(Wednesday, January 13)

The last few days I have had some serious difficulty getting up in the morning. I have gotten past that point in the time change war where I was waking up a lot in the morning before my alarm goes off. I have been dreading when my alarm goes off in the morning because I am tired and don't want to get up. I also think the initial excitement of Japan has worn off. I have realized that I am here to work and I really miss Denise. Please, let these next few weeks go by fast so I can see the woman of my dreams in person.

Bond...James Bond. Do I have to say anything else? Patrick and I went and saw James Bond Quantum Solace on base for $1. Patrick got a hot dog, coke, and popcorn for $5. I love Tuesday $1 movie night. The movie was a lot of fun. Sorry, I watched it without you Scott. I suggest that anyone who sees it should watch Casino Royale first since this movie was more of a sequel.

(Thursday, January 14)

Last night we headed to southern Yokosuka to get out the 100 yen sushi shop. I was extremely apprehensive to go, but then again you only live once. I told my friend Kevin that I would need his Japanese expertise to get me through the night without eating any seafood. I told Denise about my planned trip and she was adamant that I bring my epi-pen. I was locked and loaded with my Japanese understanding friend, epi-pen, no seafood card in Japanese, and the luck of the Irish. This was my first time to have real sushi. Karl, Mike, Trevor, Kevin, and myself set off for the Yokosuka-Chuo train station to head south a few stops.

We arrived at the sushi place and they set us in a table in the back of the restaurant. This was a fun sushi place because they had the sushi going around on a carousel. You just grab whatever appetizing sushi off the carousel and eat it. You can even special order sushi on a touch screen menu at the end of the table. You know your special order is coming when the touch screen starts beeping at you and a sushi tray comes on top of a red bowl. I ended up eating a fried egg sushi roll, hamburger sushi roll, corn and mayo sushi roll, caramelized potatoes, and a delicious slice of pineapple. They were all pretty good, but the corn and mayo sushi roll was the best.

After we were done with the sushi we got to have a lot of fun getting rid of the plates. There is an automatic counter opening that you put your empty sushi plates at the end of the table. After each 5 plates you drop you play a game like slots on the touch screen. If you win a prize drops from the chute above the sushi conveyor. Check out the picture closer. We found out when we were paying that each plate costs 105 yen because of the 5% sales tax on everything. Don't let those 100 yen sushi places fool you.

After the sushi place we stopped at a arcade game arcade that was very loud and smokey. Kevin and I played a Rambo shooting game with the toy guns. Most of the arcade games were fighting games like Street Fighter of old. They also had slot machines, animal pickup games, coin pushing games, and horse racing games. It was interesting, but it was definitely loud. We left there and headed back to the train station to get back.

I am heading to the mountains tomorrow night to go snowboarding for a few days. I am heading near Nagano where they had the Winter Olympics a few years ago. We are going to take a bullet train up there. I will fill everyone in on it after I get back.