new experiences

Monday to Wednesday I attended a seminar in Hachidoki, around 1.5 hours away by train from my place. I got to experience new things, like getting pushed and squeezed during morning rush hour in the express train on the way to the big (huge) train station in Shinjuku. The mass of people during rush hour is incredible. In every train stop, people just keep on coming in and when it seems the train car couldn't take any more passengers, somebody from the outside pushes the people by the door to get everybody to fit inside.

Trying out monja was another new experience for me. On Tuesday, Souma-san treated M and I to drinks, monja, okonomiyaki, and yakisoba in Hachidoki, where there was a street filled with monja restaurants. What is monja? I don't know exactly. It's a gooey mix of different ingredients for you to cook (or you can have the waiter cook it in front of you) on a big hot plate which takes up most of your table. What was in our monja? I recognized tentacles, so there was probably octopus. And I guess there were some vegetables in there too. It tasted okay. But I guess it's not food to make one satisfied, but more of food for group discussions, because everybody gets to share the one big liquid "pie", and you can only get a tiny quantity at a time. Also, you can only scrape off bits from the edges, because the pie is hot and still mostly liquid except at the edges, and you are only given a tiny (super mini) spatula for your spoon. It allowed plenty of time for talking.

The okonomiyaki was good. And I was able to flip it successfully (whew). I also got to try jasmine tea. It's better than oolong tea, but it's more expensive.