A successful town trip...

[alexpgp]

Our time in town was limited, less than three hours. However, I managed to hit the main post office, the bookstore, and a few places inside the market, and even managed to grab a snack at the Ginza restaurant.

The meal was... interesting. I decided to throw caution to the wind and order something from the menu completely new to me. I selected bifun, which the waitress described as "living noodles," the meaning of which was completely lost on me. After some time, she came back with a covered dish, placed it before me and stood by expectantly.

I removed the cover.

My eyes must have bugged out for just an instant, because whatever it was that had been placed on top the broad, Japanese-style rice noodles (cheese, probably, sliced razor thin) was curling up and flailing around pretty much like something that was, indeed, alive and... well, if not kicking... at least wiggling around for all it was worth.

I was hungry enough to eat whatever was on my plate even if it had been a mass of wiggling worms, but as it turned out, the dish was quite tasty.

In other news, I managed to find a vendor of birch twig bunches (берёзовые веники) that are for use in saunas, which continue to be a mystery to me. I mean, I get the idea of the exercise - the heat, the plunge pool, and so on - it's the etiquette that befuddles me. I mean, it's easy enough when all of the participants are male, as locker-room rules from home seem to apply, but I'm not at all sure what the protocol might be should the session were to turn coed.

One of the regulars at the downstairs sauna told me, for example, that the French tend to be more modest than, say, the Germans, citing the example of a German family whose members - father, mother, and two teens - stripped to their birthday suits in "semi" public under circumstances not unlike ours here at the hotel.

There are also issues associated with setting the temperature (last night, it was 80°C, which suited me fine), pouring water on the hot rocks (which rapidly increases the humidity, and thus the sensible temperature), the addition of aromatic oils to said water (someone added a drop or two of peppermint oil to last night's water), and the consumption of beverages (beer seems to be the preferred boisson) either during or in between sessions in the heated area. Russians and Swedes seem born to the sauna; as an American, I'm enjoying the experience, but do struggle a little not to avoid committing a social faux pas, so to speak.

I've got some outside work I can be doing, and which I will start later tonight. For now, I plan to just continue my resumed "on call" duties.

Cheers...

Comments

[taiyosan.livejournal.com]

So ... was there indeed something alive on the top of your noodles? Did you learn what it was? Did it wiggle in your mouth? (is that an indiscreet question? I don't mean it to be)

Just curious :)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

No, there was nothing alive in the sense of a "macroscopic" biological entity on the noodles. The movement was provided by heating really thin slivers of... I didn't find out what... cheese? (I was running behind schedule, and the waitress repeated bifun several times when I asked her about the wigglies on my way out the door, which seemed like an answer until I found out upon my return that the word describes the noodles themselves.)

The dish was tasty, though.

Cheers...

[taiyosan.livejournal.com]

Thanks

-t

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

As a follow-up, I went back to the restaurant to learn more, and found out that the waitress had been trying to tell me what it was that wiggled... the bifun itself (or at least a portion of it that had been cooked and then dried until it had become incredibly thin).

Cheers...