I worked in the Toyoko Inn lobby for a while, then set out to meet Judith for a coffee because I knew she was going to be downtown that afternoon.  But when I waited at the appointed place, I bumped into Tim and Brian, Gen’s brother, whom I’d never yet met, and so the four of us headed to Starbucks and then to another when the first was full.  I think only two of us had something coffee-based and Tim, who’s from the Seattle area, expressed his inability to understand the people seeking out the original Starbucks when there’s one on every block in Seattle.  But apparently on the West coast the donut places are going extinct because coffee snobs won’t give them any custom anymore.  We’ll see how the new Krispy Kreme’s in Tokyo does. 

I headed out to Tokyo to check out a Japanese school I might try to attend in an effort to boost my Japanese, which has again improved over the two and a half weeks here but still isn’t good enough to satisfy me.  Before heading back I tried to reach Ayako, who works in the city, to see if she wanted catch the same train back out, but didn’t reach her.  When I saw how full the train was I realized that even had it worked out it would have been plenty difficult to carry on a decent conversation.  It started to rain on the way out and by the time we reached Funabashi the rain was whipping at the window panes. 

The train went right on to Kimitsu, and I finally got a seat.  In Kimitsu Koji Hirano came to pick me up and we had dinner in a cute place called “Dan” – the character for “hot.”  (All you Daniels out there now get to call yourselves “Dan the Hot Man.”)  One of the waiters broke the customary code of conduct and asked us about how to learn a language.  Apparently he planned to go to New York for a one-year homestay five years from now and was currently studying the dictionary and looking for ways to improve his speech skills, one first step being a move to Tokyo to where there are many more gaijin than in Kimitsu. 

Back at the Futtsu dormitory of yore I took a long bath in the ofuro and dried off with the ventilator, not having a towel with me despite having read and understood the hitchhiker’s guide to the galaxy, and then went to bed. 

One thing that comes to mind and bears commenting on is the new fashion trend in women’s skirts.  Instead of the skirt just ending with a clean seam, the new skirts look like the girls took 3/4 length billowing pirate trousers with elastics at the bottom and pulled the elastic all the way up their legs until the effect became that of a giant wilted flower hanging from their waist.  It looks dead, and it makes their legs look half as long because of the additional apparent waistline at the bottom of the skirt where the fabric curves inward again.  But then, I need not understand…  Another item I’ve seen more frequently is the off-white knee-length felt-like winter coat with a belt of the same material around the waist – fortunately, never together with the dead-flower-look.