From Narita

I'm in a free internet cafe in Narita airport, waiting for my flight. I'll take this chance to tell you about a few things that happened since I left work on Monday. I apologize if there are any weird typos; I cannot remap this keyboard into US-English. After work on Friday I met up with a few other NSF people in Akasaka. We went to this really fun restaurant called "Ninja." The staff all dress like Ninjas, and append Ninja to the front of everything (Ninja menu, Ninja cocktails, etc.) The presentation of the food was amazing. We ordered a sashimi dish, and it came displayed on an ice sculpture! As far as we could tell, they created a new ice sculpture every time that this dish was ordered. At the end of the meal, our waiter performed a magic show. It was very pricey with small portions, but definitely worth it for the experience. On Tuesday I made the long journey from sobudaimae to shinagawa with my two suitcases. The commuter trains are really not designed for large suitcases, and the stations are even worse with lots of staircases. It was among the most painful 2 hours of my life. If Carol hadn't brought my rolling suitcase with her, I wouldn't have been able to make it at all. There were a few presentations by different JSPS fellows, and then a catered party. My host family showed up, so I got to give them a final goodbye. After the official party ended most people went out for karaoke. I spent an hour in a smaller room, but then everybody converged into a large room that was loud drunken madness, so I cut out and walked around the shinagawa area. Shinagawa is pretty boring. Sony is headquartered there. I hope there are some awesome movies on my flight!