Richard's blog

It’s definitely winter here. Record snowfalls have been recorded in various parts of Japan, but no snowfall that I have seen in Tokyo yet… zannen, ne. (Disappointing, don’t you think?) But the temperature did fall below zero apparently last night here at home, and today I saw ice on the foot path, so hope springs eternal (winters eternal?)

In response to winter’s arrival, I have been scurrying to the shops in search of warmth, coming back with an overcoat, some jumpers, and some leggings that I can wear under trousers. Also, going out when Bec visited me I came home with a very warm down jacket from very cool Naka-Meguro / Daikanyama (there is no analogue in Melbourne, try thinking Greville Street but a whole suburb or two). Mental note to self: when you shop with Bec, you end up spending a lot of money. She must be some kind of sorceress, because there’s nothing that she did or said that seems to have contributed to my loose purse strings, apart from her presence. Of course, she will probably blame me for ending up with a teapot that she didn’t intend to… in any case, Bec requested a photo of me in the down jacket so here it is…

Amongst other things we went to my favourite ramen shop Fukurou Ramen in Ginza and managed to buy a lot of chocolate, especially in the Wako chocolate salon where they do extremely expensive but extremely delicious (presumably) handmade chocolates. Yum.

This month finds me smack bang in the middle of the Shakespeare Challenge. Perhaps I should have known that this would be a bit taxing coming straight out of NaNoWriMo, but anyway, I’ve managed to read 22 plays in 19 days which, alas, is a little bit behind the pace… I guess I’d better keep this blog entry short so I can get back to reading! Reading all the Shakespeare plays at once like this is kind of amusing, there is not quite enough time to savour Shakespeare’s turn of phrase, although I am forever thinking to myself: “Oh, that’s where that expression comes from!”. I’m also picking up on words that I didn’t realise were from Shakespearean English, I’m particularly thinking of “zany” and “new-fangled”, and also coming across words I want to incorporate into my lexicon; I particularly like “mallecho” (mischief).

Today, I ate monjayaki in Tsukushima. Monjayaki is a Tokyo food, a vegetable-and-other-stuff pancake that is eaten from the hotplate while it is still runny. If you can’t understand that, I’m sorry, but I forgot to charge my camera before I left and hence was unable to take photographs. I also went to the Aoyama Cemetery which was sort of interesting but not exactly the highlight of my time in Japan.

Quite a while ago, I visited the New York Lounge at the Shinjuku Hyatt that appeared in the film Lost In Translation, and also more recently I hung out in the Lounge of the new Mandarin Oriental in Mitsukoshimae, which begins on the 37th floor of the building it occupies and has commensurate views.

Xmas is approaching, I went and bought champagne today (demi-sec, which is sweeter than your standard brut, just for something different) and fiendishly expensive risotto rice and slightly less fiendishly priced parmesan. I’ll be on my lonesome for Xmas, my housemate ships out tomorrow for the US. Oh well. It’s not like we have deep and meaningful conversations anyway.

All right, time to go, love to all… R