Okay, so I don`t have much news this week.  Not much has happened
lately that is very interesting.  I think I already covered most
things.  I tried umeboshi tea, which is like this fermented plum tea
that one of the Japanese staff at work gave me.  I`m one of the only
foreigners who can stand umeboshi.  But the tea, I don`t know.  When
someone gives you food in Japan and tells you `Gambate` (try hard),
you should assume it might not be good.  This tea tastes, to me, this
is purely my opinion and a guess as I have never tried this either,
like a fat mans sweaty armpits.  I took one sip and threw it out.  I
couldn`t try hard enough.  Ume tea is really good.  Just plum tea.
Why you would pickle it and make it disgusting is beyond me.

Japanese drinking games are really cool.  There so easy, but for some
reason, maybe an alcohol induced reason, Japanese people are not good
at them.  I saw one the other night that was...basically you pick a
category, like vegetables.  Then you say something and pound your
fists against the bar twice, then the person says a vegetable.  When
someone can`t think of a vegetable, they have five seconds, go, shi,
san, ni, ichi, kampai.  Then they have to drink.  But what was strange
about this was I, with my small amount of Japanese, could listen to
what they said and still think of other vegetables well before they
were done.  No one said daikon, no one said nisu (eggplant).

Speaking of vegetables.  In Japan, tomatoes are vegetables and they
think it`s really weird that we think they are a fruit.  I had an
entire lesson on it.  This is free conversation type lesson with like
6 people in English.  I came in and they just asked, `Is a tomato a
fruit or a vegetable?`  In Japan fruits are sweet.  I said an avacado
is a fruit.  They all agreed.  Avacados aren`t sweet though.  I said
grapefruits are fruit, but they`re not sweet.  They said they are
bitter and sweet.  So of course I made sure, bitter is the opposite of
sweet.  Yeah, but they are bitter and sweet.  So, if anyone knows
exactly, scientifically, definatively, why a tomato is a fruit and not
a vegetable, please let me know.

Originally, when I got here, no one would sit next to me on the train.
 This has now changed completely.  I think maybe because Japanese
people are very formal and reserved at many places, like work, they
have developed an ability to be more perceptive of what a person is
actually thinking.  So, maybe, and this is just a theory, when I first
came, Japanese people could sense that I was an outsider (not just
because I was white, duh), by minute clues when I rode the train, but
now I am so used to riding the train, I look like a normal everyday
person (just still white and weird and foreign).  So now it is ok to
sit next to me.

Another thing that`s entertaining on the train is catching the last or
late trains, especially from Osaka back into Kobe.  It makes you feel
good about abusing alcohol when everyone on the train is completely
hammered and barely able to stand up.  Although it sucks that the
train is that crowded.

Speaking of irritants, Christmas music is driving me crazy.  It`s
everywhere.  It`s not good Christmas music either.  There`s no
selection requirement.  This is Christmas music.  It will be played.
And a lot of places loop the same song or three songs over and over
and over and over and over again.

That`s it for now.

Dan