Yesterday, I took a drive across the rainbow bridge, and let me tell you, it was much different than Rainbow Road in Mario Kart. No one was shooting red turtle shells at me, nor were cars going at top speeds driven by Nintendo game characters trying desperately to pass each other. No, no, my trip across rainbow bridge in Tokyo was far more mellow, since Japanese drivers tend to be rather respectful of each other.
Awhile back at school, the vice principal mentioned that in Tokyo Bay, there is a man-made island called Umihotau. After I said that it sounded "cool," he instantly offered to take me there and asked me what day worked for me. The day that worked for me happened to be yesterday, so he picked me up around 9:00 and thus our adventure began.
The first thing that I got a kick out of was his CD collection. Among album after album of famous jazz musicians were nestled two CDS that were rather out-of-place. The fist was Bob Marley and the Wailers. The second was the soundtrack to the SEQUEL to Bridget Jones' Diary. I mean, aside from a soundtrack to a children's television show broadcast in Denmark, that was the last CD I expected to see in the car of a 50-something Japanese man.
I felt so giddy at being taken on car trip through Tokyo that I didn't even care about the massive traffic jam we encountered due to a car accident. I also couldn't get over how polite Japanese drivers are. They let each other merge, they NEVER honk, and they always show some sort of "thank you" signal, generally by quickly flashing their emergency lights, when another driver does something kind.
After we drove in the UNDERWATER tunnel leading from Tokyo to Umihotau, he bought me a Gingerbread latte because he knows I love Starbucks, and then we went to Yokohama, because he knows it is my favourite city in Japan. So we got to Chinatown to enjoy a delicious Chinese lunch. There, we ran into the first "blip" in a perfect day. He ordered the set menu which came with soup, spicy tofu, shrimp, and some Chinese dumplings. When the soup arrived, he said "Marisa, this soup very rare. Very delicious." My curiosity was piqued so I asked what it was. An expression of shock and terror washed over my face when he informed me that it was shark fin.
I simply couldn't eat it. I can just see all the shock on my readers' faces, and I definitely expect some nasty comments saying "wow, that was SO RUDE of you to turn down the shark fin soup! How could you, you ignorant American!" but look, save your comments because I just don't care. Seriously, save the energy it would take to write those hatin' words. I was sticking to my ethics on this one. I told him respectfully that there were five animals I couldn't eat: sharks, horses, dogs, dolphins and whales. I also tried my best to explain that sometimes people catch sharks, cut off their fins, and throw them back alive. He said "no, no, no, only Chinese do that. Japanese eat whole shark." But he told me understood, as he wouldn't eat dog ever.
The rest of the food was amazing, though!
Then we walked around Yokohama, he helped me shop for Christmas gifts, and then we went to Odaiba to see the beautiful Tokyo lights after dark. We even went on a harbour cruise, which was amazing.
Awhile back at school, the vice principal mentioned that in Tokyo Bay, there is a man-made island called Umihotau. After I said that it sounded "cool," he instantly offered to take me there and asked me what day worked for me. The day that worked for me happened to be yesterday, so he picked me up around 9:00 and thus our adventure began.
The first thing that I got a kick out of was his CD collection. Among album after album of famous jazz musicians were nestled two CDS that were rather out-of-place. The fist was Bob Marley and the Wailers. The second was the soundtrack to the SEQUEL to Bridget Jones' Diary. I mean, aside from a soundtrack to a children's television show broadcast in Denmark, that was the last CD I expected to see in the car of a 50-something Japanese man.
I felt so giddy at being taken on car trip through Tokyo that I didn't even care about the massive traffic jam we encountered due to a car accident. I also couldn't get over how polite Japanese drivers are. They let each other merge, they NEVER honk, and they always show some sort of "thank you" signal, generally by quickly flashing their emergency lights, when another driver does something kind.
After we drove in the UNDERWATER tunnel leading from Tokyo to Umihotau, he bought me a Gingerbread latte because he knows I love Starbucks, and then we went to Yokohama, because he knows it is my favourite city in Japan. So we got to Chinatown to enjoy a delicious Chinese lunch. There, we ran into the first "blip" in a perfect day. He ordered the set menu which came with soup, spicy tofu, shrimp, and some Chinese dumplings. When the soup arrived, he said "Marisa, this soup very rare. Very delicious." My curiosity was piqued so I asked what it was. An expression of shock and terror washed over my face when he informed me that it was shark fin.
I simply couldn't eat it. I can just see all the shock on my readers' faces, and I definitely expect some nasty comments saying "wow, that was SO RUDE of you to turn down the shark fin soup! How could you, you ignorant American!" but look, save your comments because I just don't care. Seriously, save the energy it would take to write those hatin' words. I was sticking to my ethics on this one. I told him respectfully that there were five animals I couldn't eat: sharks, horses, dogs, dolphins and whales. I also tried my best to explain that sometimes people catch sharks, cut off their fins, and throw them back alive. He said "no, no, no, only Chinese do that. Japanese eat whole shark." But he told me understood, as he wouldn't eat dog ever.
The rest of the food was amazing, though!
Then we walked around Yokohama, he helped me shop for Christmas gifts, and then we went to Odaiba to see the beautiful Tokyo lights after dark. We even went on a harbour cruise, which was amazing.
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