circa february 1997
i used to make frequent trips to narita, japan to visit connie (who at the time was a northwest flight attendant). in two of the trips, i was fortunate enough to be invited to stay with mario, his wife kazuko and father-in-law in their quaint house in the middle of tokyo. that visit was very memorable as
a) kazuko’s father would offer me fuji apples for breakfast. i liked it so much that i finished his weeks supply. yet, he seemed happy to feed me. this is pretty significant coz up to now, my breakfast consists of a fuji apple a day.
b) mario and kazuko took me out to eat yakiniku and then we proceeded to tour around the rippongo (red light district)
c) i got up early one morning and tried to take a shower. however, i could not figure out how to use the bathroom. there were all sorts of levers and they were not labeled at all(if they were, it probably would have been in japanese anyway). so, i ended up taking a bath using the pail and cup in freezing cold water (it was still winter at the time). my hosts sure had a good laugh.
i used to make frequent trips to narita, japan to visit connie (who at the time was a northwest flight attendant). in two of the trips, i was fortunate enough to be invited to stay with mario, his wife kazuko and father-in-law in their quaint house in the middle of tokyo. that visit was very memorable as
a) kazuko’s father would offer me fuji apples for breakfast. i liked it so much that i finished his weeks supply. yet, he seemed happy to feed me. this is pretty significant coz up to now, my breakfast consists of a fuji apple a day.
b) mario and kazuko took me out to eat yakiniku and then we proceeded to tour around the rippongo (red light district)
c) i got up early one morning and tried to take a shower. however, i could not figure out how to use the bathroom. there were all sorts of levers and they were not labeled at all(if they were, it probably would have been in japanese anyway). so, i ended up taking a bath using the pail and cup in freezing cold water (it was still winter at the time). my hosts sure had a good laugh.
d) mario took me around tokyo by train to see the electronics district and then we went to this temple somewhere near the city
mario in his pj's 
in front of kazuko's ancestral home 
with mario and kazuko in downtown tokyo 
a few laughs over a pitcher of kirin 
japanese templepeople here would burn some sort of paper
and fan the smoke towards themselves.
this was suppose to bring good fortune.
there goes my lunch for the day 
