Curry and doors

I love curry. A lot. It’s very popular in Japan, although hot foods are not really part of the Japanese food canon (other than wasabi). I usually get curry for lunch from the cafeteria, and little microwave packets are really popular here. Japanese style curry can come with a variety of meats, it isn’t spicy, and it is served on a plate with gohan. However, one of my friends showed me this really nice Indian restaurant not too far from home. It’s quite cheap and very tasty. You order your curry on a hotness scale that ranges from 1-50. I tried 30, which wasn’t bad. It didn’t burn going down, but my stomach was warm for awhile afterwards. My friends tried 25, and they had sweat dripping down their face. My other friend got 50, and I can’t say it worked out too well for him, really.

Random fact: Elevator doors in Japan can’t be opened once they start closing, except by pressing a button from the inside. Sticking one’s hand in at the last moment will result in crushed fingers, as is evidenced by stickers of a sad face and swollen fingers that are found on many elevators. Some automatic doors at grocery stores and such are the same way, and have similar stickers. Probably to prevent frequent injury, a lot of doors that look automatic actually aren’t, you just press a little box on the door to make it open. It takes a second, and a little embarrassment, to figure that out if you don’t expect it.