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Well, I’ve decided to name and shame yesterday’s rat-infested restaurant. Apparently, all restaurants are required by law to get thoroughly cleaned out once a year, so they are obviously cutting corners there. They have a problem, they are aware of it and clearly are not taking any steps to do anything about it. So, the restaurant in question is (drum-roll please): Didi’s curry house on Higashioji Dori. It’s a shame because I did like their veggie curry – but no more! Rats in restaurants is very, very wrong.

Here’s a couple of links. First off, there’s fresh review of Tsurugi with some arty pictures, up on Deep Kyoto that I’ve just finished.

Also, watch this and tell me you don’t want to see it too:
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And I’ve been reading about a Japanese Government decision to tone down reports that the army ordered Okinawan civilians to commit mass suicide at the war’s end: LINK

Now earlier this week, a group of MPs from the right-wing ruling party claimed China had exaggerated the number of people killed by Japanese troops in Nanjing in 1937. LINK

And Prime Minister Shinzo Abe drew condemnation abroad earlier this year after he questioned whether there was any proof that Japan’s military coerced women to work as sex slaves during the war. LINK

Which all follows a controversial new law that enforces the teaching of patriotism in schools. LINK

Not to mention ongoing plans to revise the country’s pacifist constitution: LINK

Is anyone else seeing a pattern here?

So I was sitting in a local restaraunt mere minutes ago, having just finished my dinner, when I saw something out of the corner of my eye, looked down and noticed a medium-sized brown RAT at my feet. Right by my left foot in fact. The rat looked about a bit and then scurried off back the way it had came.

“Jesus Christ!” I uttered quietly, and then went over to one of the staff and said in a low voice so as not to alarm the other customers,”Excuse me, but I just saw a rat.”
She didn’t seem particularly surprised. “Oh,” she said, “Sorry about that.”
“Do you think it came in from outside?” I asked.
“Oh, no. This is an old building so we get them occasionally. They come from upstairs. Really, sorry about that. Really.”
“Ah.” said I, and cancelled my plans to review the restaraunt on Deep Kyoto this evening. I mean it wasn’t the biggest rat I’ve seen (seen some monsters in Tokyo) but it was a rat none the less, and rats in restaurants is WRONG.

I went back to my seat to get my things, all the while looking about the floor in case the wee fella came back and fancied a run up my trouser leg or something, and another customer, who must have seen something out of the corner of her eye asked me if I had just seen something “down there.”

“Yep.” I said.
“It was a cockroach, eh?” said the lady with a smile (cockroaches are everywhere in this country and hard to avoid).
“Ah, no.” I said, “It was a bit bigger than a cockroach.” and left before she asked for further details. So nothing new on Deep Kyoto tonight, I’m afraid, although I am working on 3 separate pieces right now, all of which require a bit more “field work” to get them right. Right now I think I’ll head over to STT and regale people with rat tales. Sniffy-twitch-twitch!