Yes. I have to join the previous line of females taken to TMB, and admit that the young priest in question is way too beautiful for his own good. Some day someone will come and steal him away, and what will we others do then?

I still want to see his "boxing ring face" to be completely won over, though.

The Monk Bar, or as it's real name Bôzu Baa (Bôzu Baa actually DOES mean "the monk bar") is a tiny place in Arakichô, a former geisha quarter in Tokyo. Tiny means here that there's under 15 seats in the place. One is occupied by a blind priest, who gives a buddhist talk once in the evening about a theme given by the customers. Then there's the owner - the pretty one. He's an ex-boxer, who went to Jôdo Shinshû (Nishi) to train as priest, then decided not to go to a temple, but rather do other stuff, like putting up a bar. He was somewhat quieter yesterday than normally, had catched a flu or something, but he's supposed to be THE man you go for if you want to discuss Shinran - now I just need to get my japanese level high enough to be able to actually do it, and not just to dream about it... (the fact that you very easily just fall into watching his pretty face might make the conversation a bit awkward, though. *g*) Conversational japanese is the worst thing there is: you speak well enough to not be believed when you try to protest your japanese is no good, but it still IS bad enough not to be able to discuss anything interesting. Damn.

Still, I might have (not that I'd want to, purely for professional interests, youknowhatImean) to go there again on some occasion, and hopefully with the same company too. It's always fun to go out on a "purely academic" agenda. Unfortunately one of us had catch the trains to return to Yokohama, but after that we still continued for "one last", which then lasted until 2am. This kind of night out is something I've been missing here. What use is drinking if you can't have an interesting conversation during it? As an added bonus I figured out where I want to go for my PhD studies here. :)

Also, as was to be expected, I got many new food experiences - chicken sashimi for example (very good). The winner of the night was small fried and salted shrimps eaten whole. Maybe the best snack I've ever eaten. The only problem that remains is how to find again the places we went to by myself. I might have to come back with others later...

Thank gods tonight is free, me needs rest. And then tomorrow morning, up at 4.30. What a week.