The Darker the Broth

Yesterday, I made my last cranberry chain and didn’t care that Daisuke was complaining loudly to his friends that he didn’t want to do the Christmas lesson craft. I bid goodbye to my coworkers and wished them a happy New Year in Japanese; correctly, I might add, since that morning I had embarrassed myself by telling my landlord’s flunky to have one, literally, a “happy New Year,” which is nowhere close to the actual Japanese phrase people use when wishing each other well in the coming year. I learned the correct phrase between 9 am and 2 pm and have been using it at every opportunity.

This morning Sean and I flew to Tokyo and spent our 10- hour layover wandering the grounds at Korakuen Park. We ate udon; the udon broth in Tokyo is indeed much darker and richer than it is in Kansai.

Sean is sitting at the Starbucks nursing a coffee and I am typing until my minutes at the internet booth run out.

And so they have. My next post will be from New York and I am pleased as pie.