Tuesday January 23

Started my class with Professor Onishi today; he is an incredibly accomodating and patient man,being that I know no Japanese and he knows a little English. He had me making my own spatulas for applying the urushi. I am even using japanese hand tools, something I sort of refused to do in my preference for European tools. It's very difficult to remember to pull, not push the tools into the wood.It was a bit awkward to be watched doing the work; of course I wanted to make sure I did a good job because he was watching. It was a relatively simple woodworking task so I wanted to make sure it came out fairly decently. It seemed that he wasn't too particular about how it came out. But maybe he was just being polite.

I went out and got my first supplies for the next class on Friday; a tube of urushi and some powdered stuff, tonoko and jinoko. The area near Ueno is very busy - some of these neighborhoods that I have been to are starting to look alike. all the same shops, all the same merchandise, and of course plenty of food places to go to. I also found out where all the "Capsule" Hotels are. These are those hotels you always hear about, where for about $35 a nite you can sleep in a little cubicle. sort of like built in bunk beds. They look like train cabins, kind of. Seems like pachinko places are everywhere. I guess I should go in one of these and see what they are like.

I went to look for a Newspaper in english with no luck; I had seen on the japanese news that there is some sort of awful flooding going on somewhere in the US, it looks to be near DC but I am not sure. But there are about four all nite stores (sort of like 7-11 - one IS a 7-11) and about 10 little restaurants all within a few blocks of my apartment. Amazing; I can never have much of a choice of places to eat in my neighborhood in San Diego. So far everywhere I have been, the food has been pretty good, I haven't really had anything that tasted bad.