Well, it turns out that Rickshaws are not a thing of the past, as I rode one today, powered by a man that was missing most of his right arm but was more than enthusiastic to use the little english he knew (I frip kaat nao) took a walk around the China town, and was sad to see that they didn't have any of the pirated DVDs or anything fun like that, just authentic chinese food (which includes incredible sweet dumplings, very delicious). I also went into their museum of euroamerican culture, and was pretty shocked by the stuff in there. They've got a very bad impression of western culture (the american section was mostly of Bars and Saloons from the old west and only really had cowboys shooting eachother, raping women, and killing indians... nice to know that's our legacy.) the one shining light was that they adore George Washington, but JQA and the others also got a bad rap for some reason. I wasn't allowed to take pictures, but I wish I'd been able to. The riverside was pretty nice, and I was able to take some time out to go to the bank and get some cash exchanged, I can do simple things like that and ask about pictures pretty well now, trying to use more japanese if I can help it, it really doesn't seem that I've used that much nihongo so far... at least that's the feeling. Took a tour of one of their baseball stadiums, very intersting, their players all have lightsabers for bats, which, it seems to me, would slice the ball instead of hitting it out of the park, but hey, Baseball players here are Gods. Not sure why yet, still working on that (other than the introduction of baseball in the american occupation and it's a sport that doesn't need a body type to be able to excell, I'd love to see the japanese pick up American Football). Miss home, miss y'all, be back in the states soon enough. lesson: Irashyaimase! = the thing you'll hear when entering any store, repeated by every clerk in a whineing sort of tone. If youre ever here, get used to it.
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