Safety in numbers

Yesterday I met up with two friends from training and wandered around the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. [For those who don't know, that's one of the sections of Tokyo with all the neon and pachinko parlors and people on top of people that was in Lost in Translation.] I wouldn't go so far as to say that I've conquered the subway system, but I did get where I wanted to go and only got on the wrong train once. Granted, I only needed to change trains once... But it was leaving and everyone was running and I got caught up. [it didn't take long for me to join the group mentality...]

We tried to get cell phones, but it proved way too difficult. It wasn't just the language barrier, either. We found one brochure that was in English, but it didn't make much sense. It's funny how even when you can find things written in English, they usually still don't make sense. Then again, I think it was kind of hard for me to chose a cell phone plan at home, too. Come to think of it, it's pretty hard for me to chose anything...

We ate at a Udon Restaurant [those thick, white noodles that look like worms] and they had so much food that didn't have meat/seafood in it that I bought enough to feed three people! Whenever I find a place where there is food that I can eat I always buy too much. I ended up getting a bowl of udon w/ scallions, some tofu w/ scallions, two wild rice balls [or was that seaweed?], a piece of sweet potato tempura and a veggie tempura pancake. [This compared to their bowls of udon and one piece of tempura each.]

Now here's my main problem: I have no idea how to ask if there is meat in anything, much less to even ask what something is. A lot of this food is very hard to distinguish. God knows what they've put in the stuff. So I think there's going to be a lot of toast in my diet. [well, as soon as I get a toaster] And as soon as I figure out how to use my rice cooker, a lot of rice.