Tajimi Welcomes Us

We have arrived in our host city and they are making us feel very welcome. Today I went out for a jog very early. Tajimi was getting ready for a work day with commuters going to work and markets preparing to open. I met a woman walking her dog. We had a long conversation, unfortunately I don`t understand Japanese, but I do know that her dog is 5 years old and can catch tennis balls. It was a pleasant way to meet a resident of the city.
Our first official stop of the day was to City Hall where the Mayor welcomed us. From there were toured a local temple which was unbelievably beautiful. In the afternoon we went to the Museum of Modern Ceramic Arts. It was very interesting but we all wanted to go to the giftshop. You can check it out at www.cpm-gifu.jp/museum. Tomorrow we visit a middle school. I will give a short speech on the morning announcements. Fortunately, a translator goes with throughout the trip.

You can't make this stuff up...
At lunch I asked for tea instead of the coffee being offered. The server thought I didn`t want to use the mugs that were set out so she brought me a tea cup and saucer. Then I said, "tea". She pointed to a pitcher of iced tea. I said "no, hot tea". She poured the iced tea into a pot and heated it up for me. No kidding.

Luv U BAD

YMCA

Greetings from the Internet Cafe. We just had the best time tonight. My pals Kara and Cynda and I ventured out. First we went to the supermarket. We had a great time looking at everything in Japanese. I think the people thought I was a little crazy for taking pictures of them shopping but it is easy to make the little kids laugh and they were happy to indulge me. The girl at the register was laughing so hard because I wanted to take her picture while she worked. We bought some fun things to take home. Upstairs was a department store. A man selling komonas gave us a lesson on the art of buying one. There are many pieces needed to make the outfit complete. We didn`t buy one as they are very expensive.
From there we looked for a restaurant. We came across on that looked interesting. The young people who worked there coaxed us to try it, so we said OK. A young man waited on us and he was extremely patient. He name was "Lein". He got such a kick out of us. The menu was in Japanese, no pictures and no English translations. He sat with us for almost 15 minutes while we figured out what two vegetarians and one carnivore could eat. We ended up with many dishes including an eggplant dish (delicious), edamane (soy beans in the pod), rice balls filled with salmon (too fishy), a tofu dish (great sauce), and finally cheese fries served with shredded lettuce and ketchup! We were never sure exactly what he was going to bring us next but he did great between hand gestures, his limited knowledge of English, and a dictionary. We all laughed a lot but the funniest part was when the song YMCA started playing in Japanese. We all sang it together and later all the kids posed for us while they sang the song! All this food and entertainment for only 35 dollars. The experience was priceless.