Tasty, Tasty Murder

Oh my goodness I am about to burst my gut, no kidding. Just came back from the most expensive dinner of my life, which also included the best steak of my life.. teppanyaki! I rarely eat steak (or meat really), but this was some good stuff. The cook prepared a multi course meal in front of us on a huge, thick iron griddle, which included a bit of shrimp, scallops, onions, sliced garlic, pumpkin, and then the main dish was different cuts of Kobe beef. After that is full portions of fried rice and cold soba noodles, top it off with tiramisu for dessert and you're set to go for the next few days. Of course, I sat silently while they did business with their guest, but the price was 0 Yen and an evening of patience from me. Not bad at all.

Went to Kobe today and walked around the small Chinatown and covered shopping walkways. It's strange seeing Chinese products priced so highly. (They're cheap.) Been buying too many earthenware/ porcelain bowls, mugs and such for souveneirs, my hand baggage will be quite a doozy. Trains are cheap to take, but they're kind of inconvenvient with all the fare- buying, waiting time, sometimes being smashed against strangers' bodies, sitting on chairs whose patterns resemble stretch marks, etc. But public transportation is so much better for the environment than cars, you gotta admit. Let's carpool more!

Watched most of The Notebook a few days ago. They've got a few American movie channels on their cable station, which I discovered rather late, but got caught up on some older, renowned flicks such as The Terminator and A Few Good Men. Anyhow back to The infamous Notebook, there were a few parts I didn't remember at all, and overall, it was more enjoyable than not. There are some very unromantic parts, like when Ally has to choose between Noah and the other guy, the turmoil plus her utter unfaithfulness to her vow makes it a little hard to believe. And, I understand that it is a love story and all, but the two main characters are so enraptured by each other it's like there's no world outside of theirs. That's romantic for sure, but it seems a bit selfish for them to bestow all their love on each other alone, without much thought on others. Perhaps that's what the mind becomes in old age. Oh man, if there's a stage in this life I recoil at entering, it's old age, for many a reason. But I am rather impressed at the success of this film, because it has a great deal of OLD people showing up near the last half. I know it's central to the story, but nonetheless, haven't we been trained to look towards the media with our eyes and not with our minds?
The first time I saw The Notebook was during my camp counseloring at Mystic two summers ago, on my prized weekend break, and by then I had heard so much about it that I went in the theater with a frown and a rigid determination not to cry, feel sad, smile, soften up, feel anything, etc. Hype is a dangerous thing. As you can see for yourself on Facebook, this recent movie is a favorite of many college girls; gee, it must really be that good. No, maybe, maybe not. The point is, I wanted to stamp out their collective joy and excitement once it reached a certain level, and this could only be trumped by the movie being absolutely genius, which it is not. See what kind of person I am? But also, the more movies one watches, the more discerning one would be after a while, right? Do you know who writes all the scathing reviews of the latest record that you thought was pretty decent or even great? People who have listened to a whole lot of music. I thought the same would go for viewers of chick flicks, but apparently, that genre is an entirely different beast.

I managed to get out of working at Bagel K this whole week up til now. Not so sure about tomorrow, but thus far I have been leeching off the folks. This lack of labor is kind of unnerving and makes me uncomfortable, because I feel like I owe them something for allowing me to live so easily, like a lot of courtesies, submission, smiles or creative business ideas. That's the thing about not being on your own. For example, I enter a sour mood and get annoyed at my aunt's apologetic mannerisms. Moments later, it's noon and she gladly buys me lunch. "Gee, I am tired of being in Japan without people my own age," I silently whine. A floor up, and my aunt pays for my clothing purchase at X shop. Again, it's me being terrible. I'm surprised they can even stand my adolescent attitude, because I sure can't.