October 11, 2005
To those of you who read my blog from October 9th.....I apologize for the terrible spelling and grammar. My time at the computer had run out and I never had a chance to check it until today.
We spent most of yesterday with some students from our spring term. They took us to a Chinese noodle shop. We really enjoyed this and tried 4 different noodle dishes, and we ate everything with our chopsticks, Japanese style. It is really not that difficult once you realize that lifting your soup bowl while slurping your noodles off your chop-sticks is not only allowed but entirely acceptable. And the liquid....well you just drink it out of your bowl...voila! This restaurant served us bottomless cups of "wheat" tea. Quite tasty. Apparently this is a summer drink only.
Tomorrow, we have another day off and we are meeting with another Japanese friend and her sister. We asked her to plan the day the way she thought best. They are taking us to a temple first, and then to eat at a 'chanko'. I will have to tell you more after we have been there as this is a new term to us. After that she is taking us to a museum about the Edo period in Japan's history. It should be a full day.

One of the things that continues to amaze us is the fact that Japan is quiet. We are living just outside of Tokyo where approximatley 33 million people live and commute to work. At the station that we have to pass through each morning, 300,00 other people also pass through this station everyday. At the Shibuya station in Tokyo there are 1.3 million people passing through this station daily. If even a fraction of these people were travelling to work in Canada through the same area by car the noise would be deafening and they would never get to work because of traffic problems. But the efficient train system of Japan not only transports people on time but very quietly. We just don't hear the dull roar of traffic in most places in Japan.

Time to go for today.....
Colleen