24 Hours in Christchurch (1 of ?)

I'm going to let you in on my big secret for travelling alone.  I haven't been able to take advantage of it on this trip yet because I haven't been in a big enough city.  But Christchurch is big enough, so last night, I went in search of a Japanese Teppan Yaki restaurant.

OK, I'll admit I kinda dig eating there anyway.  But when travelling alone, it's TERRIFIC -- because they seat you at a table with other people, so you get to have a good meal and some dinnertime conversation -- which is generally lacking when you're on your own.

So, last night, I hunted down "Fuji."  Got there around 9:00.  They had a couple tables going, and seated me at a table in the back with room for 8, but only one other couple there.  The odd thing was -- they'd already started.  Cooking Guy was chopping away at their food, and they were eating their salads and tossing back their miso soup.  I was a little disappointed by this, because I couldn't really start up a conversation with them while they were enraptured by Cooking Guy setting fire to a puddle of sake.

After Cooking Guy finished with their food, he thanked me for waiting and started on mine.  Weird to get a solo performance, but whatever.  When he was just about wrapping up, they seated another party at our table -- hooray!  It was a local couple and an older Japanese gentleman who was their guest.

The local fellow immediately struck up a conversation with me, and we had a great chat with topics ranging from the location of the John Deere factory to New Zealand's inferiority complex when it comes to Australia.  When I disclosed I was from California, they all asked about Arnold, and laughed when I called him the "Governator."  (The Japanese fellow had not followed the conversation, so they explained to him, and he nodded his head and laughed, "Ohhhh!  Schwarzenegger!" and I thought, "wow, it's even funny to people who don't speak English.")