This is a regular hang-out for Ashlynn and I, because my chiropractor is right at this subway stop. There's a nice shopping center here and a place for the little ones to play. This week has been a little bit of a trough in my stay here (I guess it had to hit sometime). I missed the schoolbus twice this week! Once was due to city traffic (took 15 minutes to go 700 meters) and the second time I got lost at TWO subway stations (once I got off too early and once I got confused about where to transfer to a connecting station and realized after a few trips that I was going up the elevator and down the escalator - repeated 3 times). Oh, well, things are still going well overall. We are still in our temporary house, and looking forward to being in our permanent apartment next Monday! Hurray!

Oh, yes, for those of you who wanted to hear about our anniversary dinner, it was wonderful. We ate at a Tempanyaki-style restaurant on the top of the Westin Hotel, overlooking Nagoya Castle. This means Habachi-style cooking (Benihana) without the fancy tricks. Scott's secretary had been kind enough to make us reservations and we got an anniversary package, which included our own personal chef! We had 11 courses in all (maybe someday I'll get the menu and the photo scanned in and posted). The third course included a lobster that had been cut vertically down the center while still alive, and an abalone that was still alive, as well. We only discovered this when the chef sprinkled fresh ground salt on them and they started to move! The rolling action made by the shellfish really took me by surprise, and I think the cook was, too, because the abalone moved so much that the shell rocked a little bit! It's definitely a memory we'll never forget, and I asked if they would wash out the shell for me so I could take it home. Abalone is the material that mother-of-pearl comes from, so it's quite colorful and beautiful. And most important, we'll smile whenever we look at it!