10:42 p.m. - 2006-12-19
Sporks of steel
Burrito Night, Dec. 4: Pelayo's. We think Pelayo's is a newer place. Kia learned of it somehow. It's on a frontage road alongside Stoughton Road, in a nondescript little strip mall of a thing. We (Kia and I, augmented by Barb and Jim, for an unusual BURRITO NIGHT QUADRUPLE THREAT) were the only customers in the place, and the service was good, attentive, polite. The lights were of the horrifically fluorescent variety, but it was still a reasonably comfortable dining environment. My burrito had chicken in it and was very good. Kia and Barb both had steaky burritos which they found more than satisfactory, and Jim had tacos of some sort. We didn't stay for very long, maybe due to the BRIGHT BRIGHT LIGHTS. But we had a good meal. Next time you're out looking for burritos and the like, you could do worse than Pelayo's.
Burrito Night, Dec. 11: La Cocina. Sucks. Don't go to La Cocina if you can avoid it.
Burrito Night, Dec 18: Casa de Lara. Again. It was okay. Neither of us ordered burritos. It's possible that burrito night has run its course. There may not be another burrito night for a while. Maybe Monday will become Soup Night. Or something. O bla di, o bla dah, life goes on. Brah.
OF COURSE, long before all this we (YidVicious) were in Japan, playing for school children. They sent us to two elementary and two junior high schools, all in Katori City, in Chiba, close to where we were staying with our various host families. These visits entailed eating lunch with the elementary school kids, which was delightful because they use metal sporks and serve soba with buns, as previously mentioned. Also, the kids were pretty fun to be around and their mastery of English was way beyond my mastery of Japanese. Rock paper scissors turned out to be a good icebreaker. Japanese kids LOVE rock paper scissors! Who knew? And they're really good, you can't win, don't try. Also, we got to go to calligraphy class and be tutored by the students, who were nice enough to pretend my calligraphy didn't suck.
We were all pleasantly surprised by how outgoing and fun Japanese elementary schoolkids seemed; they were all nice and well-behaved but without seeming oppressed. In contrast, the junior high schools were quite formal. Unlike the elementary students, the junior high students were fitted with extremely military-looking uniforms and seemed to be at attention much of the time. We wondered what playing for the high school students would be like, if they were even more heavily disciplined than the junior high students.
Our school concerts all went pretty well. The guys in the Rhytm Stars set up the drums and pa for us, and Anna and Rick March and the nice flute guy made the kids get up and dance and everything. Tum Balalaika was a consistent favorite, maybe because of the vocals, or maybe because Chibans have a melancholy streak. Also, the younger kids especially seemed to eat up the Totoro song. Overall, it was pretty much like when we play for kids here, which serves to confirm my belief that we're more the same than we are different.
ALSO: Work on "Me, Me, Look at ME!!: A One Man Show" continues. More later.
