Good Luck and Bad Luck

The good fortune of a visitor in Japan is to have delicious food to eat -- and it always looks pretty on the plate! Even an American-style breakfast of cheese omelet, yoghurt, fruit and coffee looks pretty in Japan. And the view from the 40th floor of my hotel added to the enjoyment. Also pretty to look at is a tempura luncheon, eaten seated on a tatami mat floor.


A special good fortune for me today was to meet Yuri, former ELL teacher at Lawrence, for supper. We exchanged gifts, a Japanese custom when meeting friends you haven't seen for a while, and then she took me to a very authentic Japanese restaurant in the Akasaka neighborhood of the city. Yuri chose 8 or 9 dishes from a huge picture menu -- radish salad, many different parts of chicken roasted on skewers, dumplings, fried tofu -- which were absolutely delicious. We talked and talked about Japanese culture and parted with the hope that we could see each other again before I leave Japan. She asked me to bring her greetings back to Lawrence School, of course!

The bad fortune of a visitor to Japan is sometimes delivered at a temple, when for 100 yen one can shake a numbered stick out of a can, select a fortune from the correct drawer, and see your fate. This morning we visited Senso-ji temple in an old part of Tokyo. My fortune was terrible (my house would soon burn down, my marriage fall apart, and my employment would end), and in order to cast it aside I tied it to a rack of bad fortunes! Fortunately, the rest of my day was wonderful.
The students in the picture below were still hoping for good fortune.