Strangers (yelling) in a Strange Land

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woke up late, because we had limited plans for the day, and we had to do preliminary research on getting health insurance for next year, cause the army cut me loose the day my DD214 was good.

Its pretty shiesty that the army doesnt even finish out the calendar month, or offer any kind of affordable extension coverage while you look for a new job. If you electively seperate from the army at the end of your contract you get nothing, at 0000 or midnight on the day you seperate, you are flapping in the wind without coverage.

Anyways we did some of that and headed out walking. Going for Ramen about a mile away from the hotel, it was very good. The spicy Tan Tan styled ramen, not as good as that fist place in Ueno, but pretty good, laura and i got basically the same thing, i just had more lettuce, and some little dried shimps.

Then we went to another department store, originally because they had more hobby stuff, but turns out they have a bunch of natural and organic cosmetics, so laura was excited. Identifying stuff that she would actually want to purchase we took note and continued on our walk.

We went to a clothing shipping distrct, hunting for a colder weather jacket for laura, the main second hand store didnt have anything that worked, her arms are too long to fit properly in all the

cute

japanese jackets. Damn physiological differences due to Japans homogeneity...

We then went to a craft beer price with supposedly decent prices, only to learn that Tuesdays are their new day off (today is tuesday). Disappointed we settled on a british pub styled restaurant, drank some well priced FULL PINTS of beer, we decided on dinner.

I wanted Okonomiyaki or Sobeyaki, so I found a place close to home and we set off.

The place was small, and empty, we walked in, and almost immediately started getting berated by the proprietor, in Japanse. I am still not sure what he was yelling about. He didnt offer us a seat, he kinda just yelled at us. I think it was something along the lines of "This isnt like all the other Okonomiyaki places tourists go to, if you want the shit you can get there go there, i make it the way i make it. Im sick of tourists coming in here expecting it to be the way they read about online, and ordering like three or four things, and not liking it and not eating it. if you want that you can go!"

I did my best to assure him that ANYTHING he serves us we will eat. At that point i had been on the recieving end of his excitedness for too long to bail. He was almost entirely focused on me, laura was there, but not getting yelled at, she tried to smile and make eye contact with the wife/sous chef, and communicate that we are sorry, and we just want to eat the food.

So he calmed down, i google translated "whatever you recommend, we will eat" and he finally invited us to sit down, and he started making food.

he made an okonomiyaki and soba yaki. he made it how he wanted, and it was delicious, THe okonomiyaki was the egg battered vegetables that we were expecting, if a bit more vegetabl-y than egg-y that he tossed more of those little dried shimps into. And the noodles were fried up, liberally doused in the traditional sauce, and made extra special with what im guessing was cow intestines, that he fried up on the grill with the noodles.

Ultimately the meal was ENTIRELY worth getting yelled at for 5 minutes, and struggling through the language barrier. I would NOT recommend this to someone that isnt willing to work for their food, to embrace the cultural divide and attempt to overcome it.