Is it an ice cream truck? no. Is it a chipwagon truck? no.
It's a truck selling toilet paper!
Here is something you don't see everyday. This morning as I was biking out of my building at 8:45am, there was a truck passing by announcing on its microphone that it was exchanging one toilet paper roll for a newspaper. Thats right boys and girls. They have such a thing here, but can you imagine for one second a truck passing slowly down your street giving out toilet paper? This country is just becoming stranger and stranger everyday! Yet, toilet paper is not the only thing that gets sold that way, but sweet potatoes and laundry polls. I have to say, however, that the japanese have a weird, yet smart way of making business. These systems work! Japan, or at least Fukushima, is almost devoid of visual advertising like posters and giant billboards. Instead they have cars and trucks with speakers on their rooftops to advertise, promote or announce anything new in town. Another popular advertising method is giving out kleenex packages with printed advertising. At home, Im used to having people in the streets giving me loads of postcard size ads that end up unread and thrown around in the streets. But if they gave out something useful with the advertising like a pack of tissue, you would be sure that their campaign would reach a little bit more people. Something to keep in mind for when I go back home to become maire.

So as you know from my last posting, I went to Denny's with my friends to celebrate my American friend Jason's longest time out of his country and American thanksgiving. While I knew that it wasnt going to be like the Denny's at home I thought that maybe there could be a few things on the menu that could satisfy my American Food craving once and for all! You see for the last few weeks, all Ive been wanting to eat is a huge American meal with the french fries and all the gravy and the grease. When I am at home, I want asian food, like viet, or thai or japanese, or Greek food or Italien food, but here I find the opposite. Denny's did not offer any sort of relief! The whole menu was loaded with Japanese food, some italien dishes and the most American of all was a club sandwish that came in a snack size. I ate a paella... The chocolate sunday was excellent though!

That was basically my meal for the night. A paella topped with mayonnaise... Yep, mayo! They put it on everything here. Sorry if the picture quality is not that great. I was using my camera on my cell phone that night. The taste wasnt better than the rubbery food back at home, but I am sure that it was much healthier. Each meal on the menu tells you the amount of calories.







Here is what the menu looked like. As you can see, it doesnt look remotely close to the Denny's that we have at home! Here you have an assortment of different sorts or rice, noodles and tempura. How American!






Here is my friend Jason savouring his untraditional Thanksgiving meal: some soba noodles, tempura and egg rolls. Yummers. It did look better than my paella though.
















So here is my plan for next week-end... I have waited and waited for some friends to take some days off to go to Tokyo with me one week-end, but none of them have been able to do it. So I have taken the matter into my own hands and will go there alone. I feel very adventurous and extremly excited about the idea. I have the travel bug and I have a feeling that it wont be the first place that I will tour alone. I really wanted to go with someone at first because its Tokyo, its busy, its big, its loud and crazy, but I thought to myself that if I find my way back to the train station on time to go back home I should be fine. Here is what I am thinking of doing: my last class of the week ends at 8:30pm and I usually go out with some friends for a few drinks. So after that I will hop on the midnight bus to Tokyo where I will try to sleep until I arrive at around 5 in the morning. From there I will get off the bus, look to my right, look to my left and randomly decide which way I will go and walk the rest of the day... Ok, I might use my guide book a few times, but I just want to see where my feet will take me without knowing where I am and where I am going. I have been thinking about this trip a whole lot since I have decided to go on my own, and I just get so excited about the idea of being alone thrown in the unknown.

I thought it was ridiculous to go back home for the holidays after being in Japan for four months without having been to Tokyo.

Its sad to say, but im counting the days to go back home for the new years. I miss you all so much!! See you in about 26 days!
e.