Night Walkers

While bored at the hotel the other night, we decided to take a walk out into town to get something to eat with our friends Jason and Andrea, and we ended up at a little place called Sam’s Café. From the Beach Boys playing in the background, to the old model cars on display, this place was decorated in what the Japanese believe to be classic “American” décor.

We have been told multiple times since arriving on the island that there is no tipping out in town. In fact, we were told that if you left a tip on your table, more than likely, the waiter or waitress will chase you down and give it back to you, thinking you had accidentally left some money at your table. Despite all of this, Matt just couldn’t fathom leaving the restaurant without tipping the waitress something. As Americans, it just doesn't feel natural to leave a restaurant, salon or taxi without tipping, and, being new to Japan, we are still in that phase where we are unsure about the customs here. Anyway, he ended up leaving 1000 yen (about $10) on the table for the waitress. I don't think we will end up doing this all of the time, especially once we get better aquainted here, but it was just $10, and the waitress looked like she had just won the lottery when she found it!

Not wanting to go back to the hotel so soon, we decided to be adventurous and take a night walk. Because it’s so hot during the day here, the nights are gorgeous! We stopped at one of the local San-A stores, which was a small grocery store that sold only Japanese products. We found some fun things in there - one of which was some type of grape flavored gum/candy. I say “gum/candy”, because we still don’t know what it is – we originally bought it thinking it was gum, but it has a texture like taffy – really, really, weird taffy! We didn't know whether to swallow it or keep chewing it! I’m also becoming addicted to these little wafer cookies that they have here. Again, we don’t know what they are really called, but we like to call them “pancake cookies”…we just make up our own names for everything – its fun!

Here are a couple photos from our night walk:


Next post will have photos of our new home! Check back soon…
-C