Tokyo day six

We had a good day in the lab playing with the atom beam to make sure it was OK. This is done by bouncing atoms off our dirty surface into the detector. We moved the beam side to side and up and down to see what positions the surface was at (if we went too far the left or right with the beam, or too far up and down we got no atoms scattered back off the surface cos they missed it.) From this we could work out where the middle of the sample is. There was one worrying moment where the manipulator wouldn't move the sample around as we told it to but that was due to a small problem in some of the electronics. We soon fixed that one.

Steve is going in the morning. We just had his farewell meal which was EXQUISITE. It was a few villages away on the To Me. The couple who run it have had a restaurant in Ikebukuro for many years and are now retired. They keep a small restaurant as a hobby and because they are used to company each evening. We had about ten courses. The first was raw beef and carrot and broccoli. The veggies were cold and marinated in something very interesting. The beef was seared on the outside to clean it and then sliced thin and was delicious. We had soup courses and another beef course (this time with well cooked, slightly more gristly beef and more veggies). A course with baked rice balls was very nice. They are made into a triangular fishcake shape and baked for a bit then dipped in soy and baked some more. The one course I didn't like so much was set custard with bits of chicken in it and mint and orange on top. We had about 4 types of sake; hot, cold, clear and creamy with rice floating in it. All in a very elaborate and well served ritual order. Anyway, this meal was great. On the way back (about 9.30 pm) there were loads of people returning from work and kids just getting in from school.