Curry and an Iron

I’ve been here 6 days. I think I am adjusted as far as my sleep schedule but my appetite/digestion is still off a little. Tonight I did something I hadn’t actually done since being here – I went and had dinner in a little restaurant. All of my other dinners have been either non-existent or something I made in the apartment. I made an excellent choice!! It was an Indian place I had spotted on Sunday. There were a few distinct reasons I noted it and decided to go back: there was English on the menu and there were Indian people behind the counter. I wasn’t disappointed. I actually noticed a guy who looked like he would speak English as soon as I walked in so before I sat down, I asked him what was good. I sat at the bar and he was sitting at a table a foot away (everything is this close everywhere). He recommended a butter chicken curry and it was awesome. He was also really nice to talk to. He has been here for two years from Edmonton, Canada and he teaches English. We talked about the odd things I have noticed in the culture since I have been here. I shouldn’t call them odd because they are not odd to Japanese people. They’re just different for me.

After dinner I took the train to Ikebukuro – where I had been told I could buy an iron. I was told to go to BicCamera to get the iron. When I arrived to Ikebukuro I was really amazed how big the station itself was. I guess a lot of lines cross there. And there’s a department store whose basement is right off the station and there’s restaurants and other stores as well. I finally found the right exit and started looking for BicCamera – in English. I didn’t see it right away and then I saw a sign in Katakana that sounded like bikukamera – aha! Found it. But, as the name of the store might imply, there were only cameras – five floors or cameras. There must have been some mistake. I found a store clerk that spoke some English and explained to him that my friend must have been mistaken to send me to BicCamera for an iron. He said I had gone to the wrong BicCamera – apparently there are five of them within a half-mile radius. All huge stores with multiple floors –and that I could find and iron at the one three blocks away – of course! I still don’t know how one would know the difference between all of them or what the other three I didn’t go to sell. Very odd. I did find an iron and a little board. Success!

The side of a building in Ikebukuro