Day 4: Thursday, Aug 26, 2004: All work and no play...

Today followed the same pattern: lots of work, not much goofing off.
Tsurumi-san took me to lunch at a Taiwanese restaurant a few blocks
from the hotel.  We had one of the specials: soup with skinny egg
noodles, sliced beef with onion & green pepper in black bean sauce,
and a bowl of rice.  *Very* good.  Only one problem: I forgot to take
a picture.  Again.  Oh well.  I'll remember it fondly anyway.

At the entrance to the subway station, a young lady gave Tsurumi-san a
small package what I thought were coupons.  Turns out that it was just
one coupon, wrapped around a small package of tissues.  The coupon was
for the restaurant we had just come from: a discount on mixed drinks
and beer in the evening.  So I have a few photos, though small and not
what we ordered.

The adventure comes tomorrow.  Tsurumi-san will come here at about
noon.  Hopefully I won't forget to ask him about laundry matters.  My
hotel room has a small washer and dryer in it, but I haven't looked
yet into how difficult it is to identify laundry soap/detergent.  I
know where several grocery stores are, but I haven't explored them to
see how many other household things they sell.  Also, there's a
laundry/dry cleaning shop across the street from the hotel lobby.

After lunch, which I'm hoping will be another good food adventure, we
go off to the data center for a few hours.  Then we will leave to go
to the Gemini office in Shibuya.  Ka Yan considers Shibuya to be
definitely not boring.  From the sound of it, I should tie my Ethernet
cable around my head so that my jaw won't gape open as I stare at
everything in the Shibuya business district.

I'll be in the Shibuya office for a couple of reasons.  First, I'll be
one of the people interviewing a senior level software engineer
candidate.  Second, the office is using me as an excuse to go out to
dinner.  The Gemini KK (Japan) staff has the reputation for choosing
excellent restaurants.  Tsurumi-san asked me if I'd prefer steak or
fish.  I told him, "Wacky Japanese fish."