Tokyo is, in general, a very interesting place for tourists, simply because there is so much stuff that one can do. One go shopping in the market areas, spend time enjoying the atmosphere of the many beautiful parks, immerse yourself in traditional Japanese culture, such as Noh and Kabuki theatre, or take in the city’s vibrant nightlife.
However, just because Tokyo has a wide variety of things to do, one should never assume that everything is easy to come by.
Wallace sighed. “I don’t understand it, Gromit,” he said to his faithful canine companion. “How can a country be over a thousand years old and reach the heights of civilization without cheese?” It didn’t make sense; everywhere else they ever been to had access to the food of the gods, even the moon. Yet it seemed that in Japan, not only was there a decided lack of native cheeses, but the people didn’t even seem to be all that interested in importing cheese—at least, not the really good kinds, like Wensleydale, just a few unusually bland varieties of cheddar and some (shudder) processed pre-sliced American (which, in Wallace’s view, didn’t really count as cheese in the first place), and even these weren’t that easy to come by. The bald-headed Englishman sighed again. “I can see why you were reluctant to book this trip.”
Gromit briefly looked up from his knitting and gave his friend a look that fell somewhere between resignation and “I told you so” before returning to the kimono he was working on. True, it wasn’t as though cheese had been Wallace’s main purpose for wanting to come to Japan—that honor fell to the 14th Annual Convention of the Modern Association of Gizmo Inventors and Creators (also known as MAGIC), where the two of them would be demonstrating their latest contraption, a doormat which automatically took off all of the mud and grime from one’s boots which Wallace called the De-Muck-Ifier.
But the convention was still a week away—Wallace had wanted to come early to sample the local culture (and when he said “local culture,” he naturally referred to the culturing of dairy products, i.e., cheese). Thus, he was taking the country’s dearth of cheese hard. At least the Japanese had tea—they even had a whole ceremony built around the consumption of tea. In fact, it was while participating in such a ceremony that Wallace had discovered the country’s major shortcoming. As the ceremony had ended, he had asked when they would get to the part where the participants ate cheese. After he was informed that Japanese people generally did not consume the wondrous foodstuff (as the general lack of space in the archipelago meant that there wasn’t much room for livestock, and thus the country didn’t really have any traditional dairy products), Gromit had to drag the catatonic inventor outside by the vest until he came to again.
Yet again, Wallace sighed. “I suppose it’s not good moping about in this hotel room—it won’t make a plate of Havarti magically appear on the nightstand. What say we find someplace interesting to go, eh, lad? Figure out what these folks have instead of cheese.”
Wallace picked up a travel guide and began browsing. “Ah! Here we go. This looks like an interesting place…”
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(Posted Fri, 14 Apr 2006 02:26)
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