June 30 , 2003 - page 3

the dish was in front of me waiting to be eaten. Still unsure as to what this mysterious dish was I inquired again; this time I received an unfathomable response, “It’s horse sushi!” In my most stunned, high-pitched-voice I exclaimed, “What?!?” Being a huge horse-racing fan and living in Kentucky, the thought of eating a horse seemed like heresy. I couldn’t believe that there was actually raw horse sitting before me. At this point I had no other choice – I’d have to eat it. After several minutes of convincing myself that I was actually going to eat horse, I ate it. The result… raw horsemeat is actually very delicious. It pains me to say this, but it’s the truth. My friends joked that when I returned to Kentucky that everyone would call me a trader, guess we’ll have to wait and see. I think it’s a safe bet to say that horse sushi won’t fly in Kentucky, but I sure won’t forget my experience with it. Oh by the way, the contest ended up being a draw with both Naomi and Ayaka eating a whopping 25 plates of sushi.

On Friday I thought I was just going out with my friends for a night of fun. It turns out that my friends had secretly planned a belated birthday party. At the restaurant they unveiled a huge birthday cake. I was completely surprised, as this made my third birthday party here in Japan. The cake was delicious. While sometimes I have discussed some of the negative aspects of being a gaijin, there are certainly some