Discovery

Last night I met a new friend over dinner.  She is from France and we met over a knitting community called Ravelry, which I am so addicted to.  I have Facebook and Mixi (Japanese SNS) accounts, but I rarely log-on to them, and I am always on Ravelry.  The only setback of Ravelry is that it is a predominantly female community, so there is little romantic discovery (at least for me)  ;-). But as you can imagine, I am making tons of new friends.

The French guest and I met over a message board of Japanese knitters, for she was looking for a house exchange during her visit to Tokyo.  I really wanted to go to south of France, so I instantly contacted her.  But what with recent turn of my life and all, eventually I gave up on going over to France all by myself.  Nevertheless, I still wanted to make new friends and also I studied French so I thought it was perfect.

Anyway, so last night we had dinner together at my favorite Japanese Isakaya place in my neighborhood.  Unlike some non-Japanese people I know, she was curious to try everything I ordered.  I discovered that in France they have a very similar thing to our Wasabi (a spicy garnish for Sushi or Sashimi), and learned about some different way of cooking things that we eat every day. 
At the same time, it always surprises me how Japanese products are popular in overseas market, when we Japanese always try to buy things from Europe, especially France.

I will be seeing her again in 3 weeks and we will go to the Fish Market together (first time for me, actually).  I am so excited to make a new discovery in my own hometown.