Slowly

The temp dropped a few today-it is cloudy and rainy. I am glad because it was downright hot yesterday. The cherry blossom tree I took a picture of in the morning was wilted and beaten down by afternoon. I thought I was in Hawaii, except the inside of my nose is dry and prone to blood-seeping abrasion. My throat sometimes feels like I have a razor blade lodged there, and water won't always get it down. I hope I will adjust to the dryness, or suffer 5 more weeks of a mummified head.

Yesterday's inspection went slow. We broke up into our two teams and had a four story dormitory each. Our way and the other company's way clashed. I knew they had a different system, but I thought it might be as effective or maybe more so than ours. Not true. It is difficult to get them to see the value in our way, but after yesterday they may have seen the light, and as of last meeting may be willing to try it today. We worked from 730a-720p yesterday, and did not finish the building. DL was frustrated because he is used to going so fast and he could not figure out why we were going so slow. It's a learning process. We just have all never worked together before, so the kinks need to be worked out, and the rhythm found.

I was extraordinarily thirsty after work, so we finally were able to meet up with our Japan coworker, randy. He grew up here at Yokota, so he gave us instructions to a certain place off-base and we met him there. Sidewalks and streets are so narrow and quaint in Fussa. We went to an okonomiyaki place. Tiny, unassuming. Randy ordered us "nama", or draught beer, and two dishes. It is a cook it yourself place-there is a definite technique to it, and randy did a good job. The first one was the basic okonomiyaki-batter with beef, cheese, cabbage and bunch of other little chopped up bits. Cooked to perfection on the griddle, doused with what tasted like tonkatsu sauce, sprinkled with katsuoboshi. You take a serving, put more sauce, maybe some mayo, nori and you have yourself a pretty delicious "pancake". The second was "special" I don't recall the name-it was sticky. you eat it with a metal mini spatula, and you pick your piece up by holding the spatula on it, letting it stick, and lifting it. That one had a more salty pickled taste to it than the other and I ate half of one.

Randy then led us through alleys and buildings to the "red light" district, Bar Road. People from the base are banned there after1am due to a spate of recent mafia-on-military stompings. Apparently there is a decent mafia presence in Fussa. Who knew. Randy said he once saw two military guys being chased up the street by a guy with a samurai sword. As such, I did not photograph the narrow street of bars. Anyhow, he took us for a nightcap at his friends bar. Tiny-9 seats, one military regular in there. It was nice. A few good stories were told, one involving a man in tights, bloodied and torn at the end of the night after tripping in the street because he was drunk and wearing large awkward boots. We were back at the "barracks" by 1043p, and after I walked my face into a low cherry blossom branch, I made it to bed. Overall a decent day.