On costumes and cooling

Perhaps inspired by a post I did at the other blog about Japan's buffet culture, Lis and I went out on Friday night for all you can eat yakiniku ("grilled meat" or BBQ). The concept is a solid one - vegetables and thinly sliced meat tossed on a table-mounted brazier, then plucked off at your leisure, dipped in sauces and regretted afterwards. Yakiniku is fairly expensive, as is all you can eat, so we were happy to get away with 25 bucks a head or so for the combination. This is one of the few situations you would pay that much to eat dinner out in Japan, mind you - it tends to be closer to $15 when you're not eating most of a barnyard.

It's probably not even very sensible to do all you can eat for yakiniku; we tend to spend more when we do. Some non-buffet places quietly charge you for the appetisers they put down on the table though, or charge you twice as much for beers, or bring out a $5 plate of meat that's mostly lettuce. All of these things have happened in our quest to find "our" yakiniku place, but our journey is at an end. Welcome to our growing family, Rokko Yakiniku. Squeeze in there between the yummy sushi place and Mr Mickey-mouse's-face-drawn-in-mayonnaise.

Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh yes, nothing.

Having planned all week to bite the bullet and go buy an air conditioner on the weekend, we actually ended up doing that on Friday night as well. We had a couple of horrible tastes of summer late in the week, so we wanted to be properly ready. Within 10 minutes of walking into the shop, we were sitting down filling out delivery and installation forms; the guy nervously asked how we were going to pay, probably expecting me to pull out a very strange looking foreign credit card. Instead, I produced a hilariously large wad of money and dropped it in front of him. I can't say I wasn't tempted to slap him across the face with it. "We won't be able to install it until Sunday," he said apologetically. I figured we could hold out until then at a push.

The guys showed up as promised on Sunday, bringing in stepladders, bags of tools and our enormous air conditioner. No matter how exhausted they were humping each load up the steps, they still obediently stopped at the door to take their shoes off every time; even the drilling was done in their socks. I'm also starting to wonder if the workmen feel kind of obliged to accept my offers of drinks each time.
"Would you like a coffee or something?" I said. They glanced at each other.
"Yes please."
"Coffee or iced tea?"
"Yes." The Mathematician's Answer.
"...which?" Another glance at each other.
"Iced tea please."
The iced teas sat there the entire time before the workmen stood up to leave, picked them up, looked at them skeptically and downed them in one go. I found this hilarious, because by this stage workmen at home would probably be on their third and a bit more ice this time thanks. They pressed the button on the air conditioning on the way out and a window was opened to the Arctic Circle. The "high power" button can also be pressed multiple times and the effects seem to stack. Summer officially doesn't scare me now (much).

We also spent a lot of time trying to assemble costumes for the scavenger hunt on the weekend, rummaging through the $3 used clothes shop in Kobe to find a remarkable range of exactly what we needed. Save for a few key ingredients (how do you make a Toad hat?), we're ready for a weekend of looking like extremely dorky Nintendo characters. Lisa also found a $200 pair of pants, price tag attached, for $3. I'm not sure when exactly they cost $200, probably about the same time Mario made his debut. He'll be making his second debut this Saturday, provided I can get the bloody moustache right. It'sa me, indeed. I'll take my camera - it'll be funny, I promise.