July 13th and 14th or success and satisfaction

After all my hard work and rejection on Monday, I took a day to lick my wounds and then headed to KobeYoga on Wednesday. Craig actually found their webpage, which google translate sort of works on, and discovered they're actually pretty close. Craig, kindly and because he had very little choice, prepared me a conversation sheet with the phrases "I'd like to speak in person" "What time can I come by" and "I live near by" The website asks that people who are interested in trying a class call first and arrange which class they're going to visit. We walk past the studio quite often, it's on the way to most restaurants we go to, but the door has always been locked so I couldn't get away with just stopping in any way. I called, a man answered, and actually spoke enough English that he knew I wanted to talk in person and wanted a time. I think he didn't understand why I needed to talk in person. I say think because, despite using English, it wasn't great and his accent was quite strong so I still don't know if he was saying "why" or something else. He gave me a time to come by and, after grabbing some yoga clothes, continued on my quest for physical fitness. I got there about 15min before a class and the door was unlocked. The woman running the front spoke English too! I bought a 2 class trial pass and she showed me the changing room. There was no mention of tatttoos. Turns out she not only runs the front but is also the teacher so I think they lock the front door during the class so no wayward foreigners walk in while she's teaching. It was a pretty full class and, having not really done yoga in over 4 years, it felt good and bad all at the same time. One goal of yoga is to be present, in the moment and not let your mind wander. Well, let me tell you, it is very easy to stay in the moment when all the instructions are in Japanese (I decided I really need to learn the words for right and left) and you have to watch everyone around you to know what you're supposed to be doing. The instructor would come over and say some English while adjusting me if I wasn't quite where I was supposed to be. Over all, it was a good class and the instructor is awesome. She's got a more salt than pepper pixie and fantastic arms. She's skinny but she actually has muscle tone, a rarity in this land of extreme calorie restriction. I'm going back for a "suroohata" class this afternoon. That is supposed to be slow hot yoga and I really hope she's the teacher again or someone else with her level of English. Did I mention the studio is in the basement of the same building as the bakery where the extraordinarily cute animal shaped roll cakes are made?

Now for satisfaction and, yes, it is going to be about dinner. We went back to that little Indian restaurant nearish to our apartment. I already wrote about how great it is but I need to write more. We ordered a roasted eggplant curry and it was . . . magical. It had that slight smokey flavor from dry roasting the eggplants and enough spice to wake up your sinuses. I've decided that in heaven it isn't Brazilian style barbaque, but Desi Chai roasted eggplant curry you feast upon. We also had palak paneer, a perennial favorite which was also very good. To top it off the man gave us each a piece of actual dark chocolate on our way out. Chocolate is very, very rare here. I ate chocolate gelato once and Craig brought home a miniature snickers for me after one of his lab mates brought a bunch back from a trip he'd taken to the states, and that's the only chocolate I've had since we've gotten here. I began panicking, because I'm crazy, on the walk home that the restaurant might close (there was no one else eating there) and we'd never be able to have the eggplant again. I've made it my mission to tell every one I can that they should/need to/have to eat there.