What dreams may come

We went to the new Himalayan Curry restaurant near our place three times in the first month it was open. It's tasty. I think it's my favorite curry here. I couldn't say exactly how it's different than Japanese Indian curry; some dishes are sweeter and there seems to be a little more variety. (What garlic shrimp curry, which is delicious, would be doing in Nepal is beyond me.) The sign says "special nan," and it is. The potato stuffed one is delicious, and the gooey cheese nan makes Pizza Hut's cheese crust look like diet food. One wall is has a projected slideshow of beautiful pictures of mountain-top villages and low-res shots of menu items. Beer is served with papadums and there is spicy fig chutney on every table. They serve a glass of lassi while you're waiting for take out and give you cookies as you leave.
The place is great.

There's just one thing.

Every time we've eaten there, Jim and I have both had very strange dreams. Not good strange. We eat a little on the late side sometimes. But still. I'd definitely recommend it if you're nearby - there's one on Meiji Dori a little south of Yoyogi station and one near Sangubashi. (You should look at the website, just for fun. It's nifty.) Maybe better not to have it as take out while you watch a scary movie. I'll let you know for sure in the morning.

When seven steps is seven steps too many

Exit at Yoyogi JR station. Baffling. If you can't get up the steps because you're in a wheelchair or pushing a baby carriage, this won't help you. If that flight of steps is just too much trouble, you've got bigger problems.

Killer cars

Watch out for (angry) cars.

Was that an earthquake?

We haven't had a good shake in a while.

Twitter chatter (er, twatter??) about the Chiyoda line being suspended for one earlier today reminded me that I used to be on constant earthquake alert.
Over the two years I lived in Miyazaki, I can remember only one time feeling something that might have been an earthquake. I never worried about it. There weren't nearly as many things that could fall on you there, anyway. A few in a row soon after we got to Tokyo had me anxious. The same way you sometimes feel like your phone is vibrating even when you don't have it with you, I started to feel like things were swaying a bit even when they weren't. I found the US Geological Survey's international site that shows the latest earthquakes in the world for the last seven days. I was hitting refresh on it so often that I knew about the quake in China before it was on the news. But soon, it wasn't enough. It shows tremors above 2.5 in the US (did you know the Alaskan archipelago is shuddering constantly?) but only 4.5 and up everywhere else. That doesn't help for the far-off-quake-or-losing-my-marbles answers I needed.

Then I found the Japan Meteorological Agency's homepage. It maps quakes starting from a 1 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale with scattered dots showing how much different places feel them. The JMA even has space for one that hasn't happened yet - a link and a guide to the three (blinding) alert levels for the predicted Tokai earthquake, aka, the overdue big one.

I put links in the sidebar. If I've made you as nervous as I've just made myself, how bout a quick illustrated review of what to stick over your head based on where you are when it strikes? Or, better yet, enjoy the sunshine duration map, instead.

For a select few

Lujo, the free magazine for fashionable ladies... bleeding from the eyes?

(This is a shout-out to all my fans in the emerging infectious disease community.)

Something's funny about this train

I rode in the women only car this morning because it is nearest my exit. A man got on one stop after me. He started to look around, Twilight Zone style, only after about five minutes and a few new influxes of women. Finally, he saw the pink sign and winced and smiled a little.
At the next stop, he stayed right where he was.

In Japan, the umbrella can be used as a piston

The tropical drizzle this morning and this poster remind us we are heading into rainy season.

Here's a collection of all the posters so far.

Truth in advertising

McDonald's is a big sumo sponsor. There are no billboards or screens. After each match, men carry tassled sponsor banners around the ring one time. This was the grand finale, where they all came out at once. This is Jim's photo - here are a few more of his.

So that is what New York is all about

The New York edition of Starbucks convenience store "Discoveries" line is the skinny latte.
Milano is the "birthplace of espresso," Seattle is the "hometown of Starbucks" and Bruxelles, which is represented by a tasty dark mocha, is the "city famous for chocolate."

New York? New York is the "metropolis devoted to skinny lattes." I'm not sure I like that. One thing I miss about home is Half and Half in my coffee. (I've convinced myself on occasion that a glug of it in the morning coffee has enough protein, fat, and calcium to qualify as a light breakfast. Without Half and Half, I'm reduced to eating real food for breakfast.)

But the drink isn't bad. It's sugarless and doesn't have artificial sweeteners or salt in it like some canned coffee does. At Starbucks shops, they don't sell this stuff, but they do have free book covers at the pick-up counter advertising them. The covers look like this downloadable desktop wallpaper. I suppose you could print them out and wrap them around your paperpacks if you wanted to. Except for the off-message wallapaper that is an unglamorous snapshot of the Reuters building, a bunch of taxis, and a few summer tourists who don't look like they want anything to do with skinny lattes.

Useful Japanese expressions #3

遠慮のかたまり

en-ryo no ka-ta-ma-ri

The last piece of food that sits and sits because no one wants to be the one to finish it.
One literal translation: the lump of hesitation.

Someone asked,"What do you call that in the US?"
Hm, a stumper. I think we don't need a word for it in our language.