After Dark

Have just managed to wipe what I'd just written. One wrong key stroke...

Originally today I'd planned to spend the day revisiting my old haunts around Osaka, but I didn't really feel like wandering around in the rain, so instead I spent the morning surfing the net here at Takako's place then met Takako for lunch in the afternoon. We decided to meet in Umeda, but when we tried to find this particular restaurant that Takako wanted to take me to we ended up getting completely lost in the warren of shopping mall underneath the Umeda district. At one point I felt like we were going in circles, but eventually we managed to find the place we were trying to get to. I hate being underground all the time, but because of the rain it was better than getting wet above ground.

After lunch we did a little bit of shopping then retired to a cafe to recover. We'd arranged to meet some other teachers that work at the school I used to work at (and Takako still works at) for dinner, so hung around in the cafe laughing and being silly - which Takako and I do very well! - until it was time to go to the restaurant. The food was amazing - have no idea how much it cost though as they refused to let me pay for anything - being the guest. People can be unbelievably kind here in Japan. Being a vegetarian in Japan is extremely difficult as even if you avoid meat and fish the basic stock - dashi - that is used in most dishes - even dishes that have no meat or fish in them - is made from fish. I've been trying to avoid eating meat and fish as much as possible, but I have eaten fish on occasions - particularly when I was staying with some other friends last week. I have to say that the fish dishes are excellent here as well.

Bought the new book - 'After Dark' - by my favourite Japanese author, Haruki Murakami, today. I love his book 'Norwegian Wood' and when Takako and I saw a poster advertising his latest book I decided to buy it - will be good practice for my Japanese. A lot of Haruki Murakami's books have been translated into English recently and I can highly recommend them - particularly 'Norwegian Wood'. I was in tears the first time I read it.