A month.

So, it's almost been a month.  It feels like it's been so much longer.  I feel like I've just seen the tip of the iceberg, so to speak.  My relative excitement level has dropped, but my fear has gone with it.  When I walk around the streets of Tokyo, I do it with my head held high, unafraid of any spontaneous conversations that might arise.  I don't think I'll necessarily do well in the conversations, but I am unafraid of having them.  I feel like that's a big step for me.  I really can't have a big post tonight, since I put off doing it until after midnight, so I just want to talk about one thing.

We ate at this decent beef bowl place down the street today.  The food was not awful, but it was served with a raw egg that, as I was informed by a very awesome gentleman sitting a couple seats away, was to be mixed into our food once it arrived.  Seemed like a fairly good idea, so I did just that.  As it turned out, the food wasn't as hot as it needed to be to cook the egg and I ended up getting a mouthful of raw yolk for one of my bites.  I'll not be mixing my egg in again.  Certainly not there, maybe not ever.  Anyway, that's not what I wanted to talk about.  I wanted to talk about the man who was sitting a couple seats down.  He was a very old Japanese man who spoke flawless English.  He was really neat.  He had all sorts of opinions about American politics that I found interesting.  He doesn't seem to like any of our presidents, which I found interesting.  I didn't ask him about Japanese politics, but I'd wager that I wouldn't be able to keep up with that conversation.  At one point, while discussing what was in the soup, he started talking about how Japanese people were healthier than American people.  It's funny.  When these conversations happen, I always feel like I'm some sort of silent example of poor health in America.  Well this time, he pointed to me and said that there were a lot of fat people in America like me.  It was pretty sweet.  So nonchalant.  As it happened, I had prepared myself for this cultural peculiarity and was neither offended or shocked.  I just thought it was funny and interesting.

Also, miso soup is starting to grow on me.  Go figure.  I have a long time to go, so I better start liking it, right?  Maybe I'll start liking ramen soon.