Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Weekend with Russian Fritz and Mr. Russian Fritz

We had a great weekend with Mr. and Mrs. Russian Fritz. They arrived Friday afternoon and Mr. Russian Rita, aka Kaz, picked them up because his wife was at work. Later, the Ritas and the Fritzes had fries, mayonnaise, and Tandoori chicken at their hobbit-hole apartment. Russian Fritz was surprised at the size of the apt., feeling a little like being in the Land of the Lilliputs, where great kolbassas are reduced to breakfast sausages the size of children's fingers. On Saturday, Mr. R. Rita went to work and Mrs. R. Rita and the Fritzes went to the Meiji shrine. Luckily, someone was getting married there, so we were able to ogle them and take pictures. Next, we saw and heard the many bands playing in Yoyogi park and looked at people's used goods on the side of the path. We then went to the 100 Yen shop where Mrs. Fritz was overwhelmed with the miriad of inexpensive delights. I talked her out of buying 4 million baking tins in assorted shapes. She instead bought only 3 million.
That night, we went to an izakaya, a Japanese-style pub. We had a variey of good eats, plum sake, beer...Next, we went to a karaoke box place in our neighbourhood and sang there until 4:00 AM. The Fritzes and Mr. R. Rita ordered 14 beers, those barley water maniacs.

All in all, we had a wonderful visit. It brought us back to some shared reality instead of making us feel like disconnected particles running wild in a globalized world.

Hopefully, we will visit the Fritzes in March. Until then, we will miss them!!!