One of the things I love about Japan is that everything here is foreign; just about everything is strange to me. Of course, the flip side of that is that I must be foreign to just about everyone here. Case in point, a couple of days ago I had the singular experience of trying to eat a meal under the intense scrutiny of a one-armed sushi-bar owner.

I hope it was a nice change for him. He's the only amputee I've seen the whole time I've been here, and maybe for once, he got to be the guy who was trying to look without being caught staring at something he doesn't see every day.