It’s our final day in the office and the Tokyo portion of our work assignment has come to an end. We’re handing out the remainder of the gifts we brought from the states, and reminiscing about the things we’ll miss:

• the way the ladies in the coffee shop on the first floor say “thank you very much” while drawing out the “ah” syllable: “arigato goh-zai-maaaaaaaahs”
• the high pitched voice of one of the assistants. since so few people are on the phone in the office, her voice really carries and we’ve picked up key phrases that she uses frequently. she calls me “Karen-san”
• and the cafeteria workers who always want to feed us more than we want. For example, today I chose the shumai (pork dumplings) and tempura plate which comes with a bowl of white rice and miso soup. I don’t like miso soup so I didn’t take the bowl, but the lunch lady insisted and ran out from behind the assembly line lunch counter to bring me my soup as I was being rung up at the register.

Being my last day in the office, I picked up a creme filled pastry thingy plus coffee for breakfast from Doutor. Pics of breakfast and lunch follow.

Creme filled pastry from Doutor for breakfast

Shumai and tempura for lunch at the cafeteria