5:59pm Japan:

What I said about Seattle not raining on me when I left, I think Japan might make up for it. Nice fellow on the train from the airport suggested I get an umbrella (I packed one, actually) as it’s the end of the rainy season. Tokyo was sunny, but now (we might be in the suburbs but I’m inclined to think we’ve passed them) the sky is overcast – not the type where you see cloud formations but rather a solid medium-light gray haze. Visibility is minimal, maybe a mile? The street don’t really look wet though as though it might have rained in the past few hours. Then again I’m basing my knowledge on Seattle (chillier and lower humidity) so it may work differently (or rather likely does) here. The fellow on the last train also talked about food, he lived in Osaka (or near it, I wasn’t quite sure) and recommended the same foods Alex mentioned, and specifically referenced their affordability. He told me about a practice that he described as ridiculous (and I didn’t want to argue) that is especially popular in Kyoto. So if you go out for a nice dinner the expense wouldn’t just be the food and other things one would expect in the US, but would also specifically include the quality of the plate/dinner servfice, the same food eaten off a non-descript plate would cost less, and the same food off Wedgewood china would cost more. Which makes sense in its way. I don’t know where we are now, but there was a big apartment building built into/onto sides of a hill, shipyards on what little flat there was, then what looked like sea/ocean so close I’d half think I could reach out and touch it. And addendum to the neatness of trains. We’ve already established the smoking car coolness. The businessman-looking fellow who got on and sat next to me at the last station is having dinner, I think, with a can of beer to accompany, which sprinkled/sprayed my right arm as he opened it. Now I’m extra thirsty. There’s a young child sitting somewhere behind me sounds just like the character of “Ten” from Urusei Yatsura, an anime series from (I think) the 70s.