the japanese way

I've been in a japanese frame of mind the last few weeks. Along with my newfound addiction to Sudoku (I actually carry a book in my purse and plug away at one whenever I have a few minutes) I FINALLY finished Memoirs of a Geisha. I bought it years ago and finally got around to reading it. Now I'm looking forward to the movie. Saw a few glimpses at the Oscars. Although its a sad story, I loved getting thrown into this other world. From that point of view it was fascinating. It partly brought me back to fourth grade when I did this huge project on Japan, which I still have somewhre in the basement, along with taped chopsticks and small bag of rice on the cover. To get extra information, my dad brought me to the Japanese Consulate where we got tons of beautiful brochures (and to think that we wouldn't do something like that for our kids now, the internet would provide it all). I so remember pouring over those brochures, fascinated by this other culture.