台風ー  The Aftermath
On Tuesday night a typhoon blew through, producing the aftermath of craziness on the trains. The trains had to stop early the night before due to the strength of the storming, which also resulted in obstacles on the tracks that had to be removed.  So when the trains started again in the morning they were slower than usual and slightly off schedule.
When I got to the station that morning there were three or four times as many people as usual waiting on the platform. I had to wait for the second train to go by before I could get on.  And as soon as the train doors open the people on the platform made a mad dash to get inside and get a spot on the train so they wouldn't have to wait again.  The people take it upon themselves to pack themselves in so tightly that everyone is literally crushed together.  I am not exaggerating.  It is the most ridiculous transportation experience I ever have had in my life. But I am glad I got to experience it, because that is just another part of business culture for you. Everyone wants to get to the office early, so they do everything they can to get on a train!
After work that day, I went to watch an a capella singing group from Harvard University that was performing at Josai University here in Tokyo.  They were very good and so entertaining, and sang a great selection of oldies and classic songs.
For dinner I went to a yakitori place.  Yakitori is a cuisine where they grill chicken and vegetables on skewers over charcoal grills.  Everything is chicken, and I ate all kinds of parts including liver, soft bones, hearts, skins, as well as regular parts of meat like breast and leg.  They also made ginko nuts on the grill which were especially delicious! At this restaurant there were two options, either choose what you want to eat from the case at the counter, or let the chef grill stuff up and keep serving different things until you are full.   So we went with chef's choice.  Periodically he would grill up another couple skewers of some chicken part, or some vegetable like asparagus and serve it to you.  It was a lot of fun to watch them cook (this also was an open kitchen inside the eating counter) and great to eat.

Clockwise from top- Japanese pickles; mushed radish maybe? with raw egg and soy sauce; and barely seared chicken will Japanese herbs.

            Pictured here is chicken leg pieces and ginko nuts.  Also raw eggplant and tomatoes at the top.

        This was a steamed pudding (but not sweet!) made of egg, chicken broth, mushrooms, and more.