The chicken or the egg....

Greetings blog readers! Blogger Bill will receive his computer this weekend so I’ll provide some reading entertainment for this week. Yesterday was day 3 on the job. Actually, we went through cultural training all day but it was at the office since we don’t really know our way around yet. We learned about cultural differences, eating etiquette, seating, bowing, travel and history – all very interesting!

For lunch, we went to a Japanese restaurant so our instructor could show us what “to-do and not to-do”. First, every restaurant has a specialty; this one was chicken – harmless to the fellow American. We went in and realized we needed to take off our shoes. Is this common? Yes! No prob. – I’m wearing clean, hole-free socks. We were then seated in semi-traditional tatami tables. That means on the floor but with cut outs for your legs. Pretty neat. There were two options for lunch, chicken skewers or chicken & egg. Bill and I opted for chicken & egg on rice. When it arrived, I opened the lid and realized it’s a raw egg. To eat or not to eat? Well, raw egg happens to be very common here and it was delicious on top of the chicken. Also, if you opt for all dark meat, it costs more. Funny!

Our training ended around 5. I then went to back to work, anticipating the welcome dinner from the HR group – how thoughtful! Teppanyaki was on the menu and they kindly asked me what I didn’t eat. I indicated that I tend to shy away from raw egg... but judging from this afternoon, this may not be an issue. Also, I told everyone that “I’m not a picky eater!” (esp. thinking of teppanyaki… chunks of meat, veggies, rice) Around 7, we headed over to the restaurant. Our table was on the second floor. Ah yes – shoes off. I then looked at the seating, same as this morning, but no cut outs for the legs! Uh oh… how do I sit? Well, men sit yoga style, one leg across the other. Women sit with both legs semi-tucked under on one side. Wow – I am not that flexible! So… I had to sit like a guy. Appetizers arrived – chicken sashimi, horse sashimi and an egg omelet. Well, the egg is fully cooked! I tried the chicken and it was really good. The horse meat was a little chewy. Main entrée was salmon, chicken, pork, veggies and cocktail wieners. Are you also thinking “wieners?” Yes, interesting but tasted great. We shared lots of laughs and “kuai” stories, leaving a little after 10pm. Most of my colleagues have an average one hour commute. I learned today that this is a typical workday in Japan and I cringed when I heard it but it was so much fun!