Well, the couple who generously gave us the apartment for the two weeks are the Sudos. They are a really nice older couple, and while we have been here, we haven`t really had a chance to run into them because we were running around quite a bit. Well, on Wednesday we finally got a chance to meet Mr. Sudo, he came by our place and we arranged lunch for the next day. He`s retired, probably around 60 or so, still with black hair and glasses (I feel like I`m writing a character description in a novel). His wife was about the same age, she was fairly petite. and her English was not quite as good as his. He had spent many years teaching Chemistry (inorganic for those interested) in Tunesia, and then the two of them traveled around doing volunteer work (chemistry related I believe).

Anyway, he arrived the next day to pick us up for lunch. We walked down to this Korean BBQ house near our place. For those of you who`ve been to Shabusen in Vancouver, it`s a lot like that. For those of you who aren`t from Van, you get a plate of meat and there`s a giant grill in the middle where you cook it to your liking. They had an English menu, but we just ordered a large sharing plate that had lots of different kinds of meats. There was 2 types of bacon, beef, beef tongue, and a couple other things. They are spiced, and there is a miso paste to spread on them as well. Let me tell you, man did we eat a lot. I guess Mr. Sudo wanted to make sure we were both stuffed to brim. After 2 plates of meat (and a couple of beer), he ordered us some soup as well as these rice patties that you put on the grill as well. It was so good, but so much food. Erik and I tried to hint that we were getting full, but we didn`t want to be rude, so we ate what came to us.

Once we were done our meal (and thouroughly stuffed) the restaurant was nice enough to bring us a complementary fruit dish for dessert. It was very eleborate - there was pinapple sliced in half and the center was left in, while the rest was sliced up and tucked underneath the center (we might have a photo, kinda hard to explain). On top of that they gave us some hilarious power ranger toys, probably reserved for little kids - Erik got balloons while I got one of those styrofoam gliders (those little planes that you might have played with when you were young). All in all it was a great lunch, and Mr. Sudo insisted that he treat us as we were his guest, not only had this man given us an apartment to stay in, but he took us out to a nice meal as well. He is going to come to Vancouver in May, so we`ll get a chance to do the same when he comes. Erik and I have picked up gifts for the two of them to say thank you as well.

After lunch, we went back to his house for tea and ice cream. Mmmmm, they have these delicious ice cream contraptions that have a sweet chewy rice on the outside and vanilla icecream on the inside. So good!! So we had tea and some Japanese crackers and talked for a little while longer, (trying to use the little Japanese we had when appropriate). He invited us out for drinking later in the week (as I will explain in a later blog is not that uncommon), so there will probably be some more stories to come.

Drew